KECORDS OF 
THE FIRST CLASS 

OF THE 

FIRST STATE NORMAL SCHOOL 
IN AMERICA 

ESTABLISHED AT 

LEXINGTON, MASSACHUSETTS 

1839 



BOSTON 

^tintttx for tfje €la$^ 

1903 



THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

APR e 1903 

Copyright Entry 

ClXSS iV XXc No. 

COPY B, 

L.I ^ i.i. r m i I "" «» '■«■! -:-•= 






COPYRIGHT, 1903 
BY MARY SWIFT LAMSON 



THE LIBRARY OF | 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

APR 6 1903 

Copyright Entry 
CLASS ft^ XXc No, 
COPY B. ._j] 






EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION 

Sketches of the beginning and early history of the first 
State Normal School in this country, established at Lexing- 
ton, Mass., July, 1839, having been published in connection 
with the quarter-centennial and semi-centennial memorials 
of the school, we confine ourselves in this volume to the 
story of its " First Class," as told in the records kept by 
the members from year to year for their annual meetings. 

It was the custom adopted at the first to appoint one of 
the number to prepare an address for the following meet- 
ing, the topic being left to her own choice. She became 
tho guardian of the Record Book, and was expected to copy 
her address into it. Thus the manuscript became a book 
of many authors. 

After the lapse of more than half a century, in which it 
has doubled its original number of pages, its value as a 
record of historical and educational events has been increas- 

gly appreciated. 

The few surviving members of the Class whose story it 
tells noticed with much regret that some of its most valu- 
able pages were becoming illegible from the fading of the 
ink. Anxiety lest the entire record be lost was relieved 
by an offer from one of their number to defray the expense 
of printing an edition for private distribution among the 
original members and their descendants. To this gen- 
erosity the appearance of the book in its present form is 
due, and the enjoyment of its permanent possession is 

thereby made possible. 

M. S. L. 

Cambridge, January, 1903. 



CONTENTS 



,1864 



First Meeting, Lexington, September 25, 1850 .... 

Second Meeting, Lexington, September 24, 1851 . 

Third Meeting, Lexington, October 13, 1852 .... 

Fourth Meeting, Lexington, September 28, 1853 . 

Fifth Meeting, Lexington, September 27, 1854 .... 

Sixth Meeting, Lexington, September, 1855 .... 

Seventh Meeting, Marlboro Hotel, Boston, September 24, 1856 
Eighth Meeting, Marlboro Hotel, Boston, September 29, 1857 
Ninth Meeting, Marlboro Hotel, Boston, September 15, 1858 . 
In Memoriam : Mrs. Mary Hall Loring .... 

Tenth Meeting, Mrs. Lamson's house, November 16, 1859 

Eleventh Meeting, Lexington, August 8, 1860 

Twelfth Meeting, Lexington, October 1, 1862 .... 

Thirteenth Meeting, Lexington, August 13, 1863 . 

Fourteenth Meeting and Quarter Centennial, Framingham, July 1 

Fifteenth Meeting, Marlboro Hotel, Boston, September 6, 1865 

Sixteenth Meeting, Winthrop House, Boston, August 31, 1867 

Seventeenth Meeting, Winthrop House, Boston, September 2, 1870 

Eighteenth Meeting, Nantucket, August, 1871 

Nineteenth Meeting, Winthrop House, Boston, September 4, 1874 

In Memoriam : Eliza A. Rogers, Edwin Lamson 

Twentieth Meeting, Crawford House, Boston, September 1, 1881 . 

Twenty-first Meeting, Quincy House, Boston, June 27, 1884 . 

In Memoriam : Harriet Peirce ....... 

Twenty-second Meeting, Halifax, Mass., June 17, 1885 . 

Semi-Centennial Celebration, Framingham, July 2, 1889 

In Memoriam : Mrs. Sarah E. L. Richardson, Mrs. Lydia H. Morton, 

Mrs. Sarah E. Davis, Mrs. Rebecca M. Pennell Dean, Mrs. Susan E. B. 

Channing 172 

Twenty-third Meeting, Tyngsboro, October 3, 1895 177 

Special Celebrations : Golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. Thompson ; 

Mrs. Lamson's 75th birthday ; golden wedding of Mr. and Mrs. 

Johnson 179 

In Memoriam : Mrs. Almira Locke Johnson ; Miss Hannah M. Damon . 183 
A Record of the First Class, by Mrs. Mary S. Lamson .... 187 

Necrology 199 

Appendix : Frederick W. Loring ; In Memory of Margaret O'Connor ; 

Miss Ireson's Fifty Years of Service ; " Live to the Truth " . . 200 



FAOB 

1 

18 

24 

26 

30 

41 

51 

55 

78 

82 

84 

85 

94 

97 

99 

102 

109 

113 

115 

122 

126 

141 

145 

153 

164 

169 



NAMES OF THE MEMBERS OF THE FIEST CLASS 

Hannah M. Damon West Cambridge. 

Sarah Hawkins Charlestown. 

Maria L. Smith Lincoln. 

Louisa Rolph Newton. 

Lydia a. Stow Dedham. 

Mary H. Stodder Boston. 

Mary Swift Nantucket. 

Almira L. Locke Epsom, N. H. 

Margaret O'Connor Cambridge. 

Mary R. Haskell Ashby. 

Amanda M. Parks Lincoln. 

Sarah E. Locke Lexington. 

Mary A. E. Davis Lexington. 

Sarah E. Sparrell Medford. 

Eliza R. Pennell Wrentham. 

Rebecca M. Pennell Wrentham. 

Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Sarah W. Wyman Roxbury. 

Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Susanna C. Woodman Boston. 

Susan E. Burdick Nantucket. 

Lydia H. Drew Boston. 

Eliza A. Rogers Billerica. 

Hannah P. Rogers Billerica. 

Abby M. Kimball Dracut. 




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RECORDS 



riEST MEETING 

This Class, which consists of twenty-five members, held 
its first meeting at the Lexington House, Lexington, Mass., 
September 25, 1850, at which sixteen were present. 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson, Mrs. Mary A. Davis, and 
Miss Sarah Wyman. 

The following are the names of those present, including 
invited guests : — 

Rev. and Mrs. Cyrus Peirce 
Miss Hannah M. Damon 
Mrs. Mary A. Davis . . 
Mrs. Lydia H. Morton . 
Miss Louisa E. Harris . 



Miss Adeline M. Ireson 
Mrs. Sarah E. Richardson 
Miss Rebecca M. Pennell 
Mrs. Mary H. Loring . 
Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lamson . 
Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Thompson 
Mrs. Sarah E. Clisby . . . 
Mrs. Lydia A. Adams . . . 
Miss Sarah W. Wyman . . 
Mr. and Mrs. John Chandler . 
Miss Eliza Ann Rogers . . . 
Mrs. Hannah P. Blodgett . . 



Waltham. 

Boston. 

Lexington. 

Halifax. 

Roxbury. 

Cambridge. 

Woburn. 

West Newton. 

Fall River. 

Boston. 

Woburn. 

Boston. 

Fall River. 

Roxbury. 

Waltham. 

Billerica. 

West Amesbury. 



2 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

The following children of members of the Class were also 
present : — 

Ellen Davis. Albert Kichardson. 

Jenny Lind Thompson. William F. Chandler. 

In pursuance of an appointment made at a meeting of 
the Committee of Arrangements, Mrs. M. H. Loring de- 
Hvered the following 

greeting: 

Once more, my sisters, do we meet together on this spot, 
endeared to us by so many recollections, hallowed by so many 
associations of the past, to celebrate in fitting manner our 
first Class meeting. Years have since passed over us, leav- 
ing on each one of us the impress years must leave on all. 
Changes have come to us, the alternations of joy and sor- 
row, the full fruition or the disappointment of our most 
cherished hopes. Yet with our hearts still glowing with 
their youthful freshness of affection we meet each other 
to-day with all the ardor of our early acquaintance. On 
this spot and on this day our recollections are all of the 
pleasant past — all of the gayety, the mirth, and the hap- 
piness of our schoolgirl life. All thoughts that might 
intrude to mar our joy, all phantoms of misspent times, all 
grinning ghosts of broken study hours that might intrude 
to mar the joy of the present moment are steadfastly thrust 
away from us, and the greeting we extend to each other 
to-day, and which in behalf of the Class I am called upon 
to express, is full of early and of pleasant memories. 

I greet you, then, my sisters, from my own full heart I 
greet you, as the classmates and as the friends of other 
days, whose kindly sympathy cheered us when the little 
clouds of a schoolgirl's life were lowering, whose kindly 
aid was at hand when our own strength was insufficient 



BECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 3 

for our labors, when hopeful spirits shed light round the 
pathway which else to us looked dark and dreary. But 
this is not all, nor is our greeting that of classmates only, 
the hand which to-day clasps hand proffers the friendship 
of a heart that is still young, though years have passed by 
it; of a heart that through many experiences still cherishes 
the memory of early friends and is faithful to its early ties. 
The trials and perplexities of a teacher's life are remem- 
bered, and the sisterly sympathy that was faithful and 
hopeful through them all is acknowledged to-day in the 
heart as lip presses lip. We come not here as a class 
of schoolgirls young, inexperienced children. We meet 
now, many of us, as matrons, and children of our own are 
gathering round us, and as we see with what interest and 
affection each little one is greeted our feelings gush forth 
with new impetus and a warmer glow. As the merry jest 
passes from the lip even, one can see the eye filling with 
the tears that spring from a deeper source. Oh ! is it not 
one of the pleasantest features of our celebration that the 
little children are permitted to become participants in our 
day's pleasures and inheritors of our oldtime friendship ? 
Affliction has visited us, and as we have tried to bow sub- 
missive to the will of Him who doth not willingly afflict, we 
have felt even then that your sympathy was with us, that 
your tears would fall for our grief. Death has entered 
some of your homes, even since last we met, removing those 
who were dearest and making desolate the household hearth. 
But even in the depth of your distress, my sisters, did not 
the thought of our sympathy come to your souls with some 
power to soothe the bitter sorrow ? We greet each other, 
again, as those who have sorrowed together. May the love 
that has survived so many years still unite us, that year by 
year we may meet as a band of sisters fulfilling thus the 



4 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

prophetic words of that one of our number with whom I 
am proud to be associated to-day in addressing you. Ten 
years ago when we parted these were her words : — 

" Still our friendship shall endure, 
Built on a basis strong and sure, 
We will love on forever ! " 

But there are with us to-day friends who were also with us 
in the days that are gone, and for you, my sisters, must I 
also speak to-day. Let us greet her whose smile was ever 
present, whose manner ever gentle, whose voice was ever 
kind, with our own kindest smiles. Let us welcome her 
to-day with our fondest words, who was ever ready to wel- 
come us even to her heart. We do welcome you, then, Mrs. 
Peirce, with our whole heart, with not one recollection of 
the past to mar the joyousness of the present. And we 
would pray for you that the light and the hope you shed 
upon our path in bygone days may illumine your own even 
to the end, that the unfaltering kindness you showed to us 
may be returned to you by grateful hearts an hundred fold, 
and that the evening of your days may pass amid " the 
sunshine ^of kind looks and music of kind voices ever 
nigh." 

But there is yet another friend : how can I speak to him, 
how greet him ? How, when my own heart is full, can I 
utter the feelings of others ? How can I welcome him who 
welcomed us long ago to the closest affection ; who gave 
us a child's privileges, and bore with our childish wayward- 
ness ; who even yet looks back — we know he does — to that 
old class at Lexington, with feelings stronger in their inten- 
sity than any other class has power to claim ? How can I 
speak for you to Father Peirce ? Shall I call back to his 
memory old stories of the past, when, thoughtless and way- 
ward, we tried his patience and perchance grieved his heart. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 5 

and now, with a deeper feeling and a truer sorrow, implore 
his pardon ? Oh, no ! let us not recall such scenes ; it 
needs not ; for in the eye that fills as his venerable form 
appears in sight, in the hand that trembles as it meets the 
pressure of his own, in the quivering lip that almost refuses 
utterance to what the heart would speak, he reads our feel- 
ings as clearly as in any written word. He reads that the 
past, with all his kindness, is present to us now in as real 
existence as in olden time ; that the memory of his fatherly 
care and affection stirs in our hearts a deep fountain, un- 
troubled save by the angel of his love. Once again as 
children would we give to him the name he so loved from 
our lips, the name of Father. Once again as children do 
we kneel at your feet and ask — 

" Your parting blessing to descend on us, 
Our future path to attend, 
And cheer our future lot." 

Since last we met here, Mr. and Mrs. Peirce have been 
guests in my own home, and many a story of old days was 
recalled, the days when (I may say it without offense in 
this company) — the days when " there were giants." 
Many a curtain was lifted that till then had veiled scenes 
of fun and frolic from his sight. 

Let us also take a brief retrospect of the past, looking, as 
was once eloquently expressed in our presence, " out of the 
eyes of our hind head." Twelve years ago, how often were we 
obliged to call up Mr. Peirce's hopeful reflection, " Strength 
does not consist in numbers ! " How fortunate for us — 
else we were weak indeed — the Pioneers ! the Matriarchs f 
the Old Termites of Normalty, as we used laughingly 
to call ourselves. How poorly in that point could we com- 
pare with the present flourishing class of one hundred and 
ten members ! Do you remember, girls, when we held our 



6 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

sessions in that little sitting-room (which afterwards froze 
its way to every memory), and there were barely enough 
to sit on Mr. Peirce's right hand and on his left? Ah, 
some of you understand the allusion; I need not be more 
explicit, but if your memory fails you, ask Mrs. A. for par- 
ticulars — she knows the story well. Does my " Fac-simile " 
remember our wonderful equation in algebra, that reaches 
after long and close application = 0? A happy result 
truly, for could it be by error we arrived at such a well- 
established truism ? I see before me now in official capacity 
as one of your committee, and in the person of one of my 
dearest friends, the author of that wonderful recitation 
upon transformations. I see she recalls it now, and now 
can laugh as heartily as I at the idea that they (transforma- 
tions) " are peculiar to all animals and also to fishes." Ask 
Miss W. for any further particulars or peculiars upon this 
point. That was a brilliant day in the history of the school, 
for it was on that afternoon, also, that another young lady 
gave so pithy an abstract of Thomson's Summer Noon 
scene. Whether the heat of the day was so graphically 
described as to affect her as hot days often do affect us, I 
cannot tell ; but when called on for an abstract of what 
had been read, she replied as follows : " He describes two 
dogs lying in the sun." Mrs. C. will tell you more about 
it. But I merely mention these among ourselves. We can 
bear each other's laughter, for we have tried its power ; but 
as we value our reputation, let not these stories come to the 
knowledge of our younger sisters, lest they feel justified in 
saying, as they have said, that they " stand on the giants' 
shoulders and see farther than the giants can ! " These are 
a few of the school recollections that arise as we muse upon 
the days that are no more, that at the time sent our eyes 
to every corner of the schoolroom. But who recalls the 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 7 

scenes that occurred out of school — the practical illustra- 
tions of shampooing, the coffee-pots of cider, the delicious 
squash pies, the apples and pears from our kind-hearted 
neighbors ? How many of you remember the " Belle of the 
School," so-called, partly, perhaps, because one of us who 
had not a proper fear of study hours took that time to make 
fast to her the sacred bell, to jingle with her every move- 
ment. Ah ! as Mrs. L. sits here to-day in her matronly 
dignity, spite of the years that have lapsed, and even without 
the noisy appendage that of old gave her the title we still 
yielded to her, she is still the " Belle of the School." Some 
of you may remember the day when one of you (ah. Miss 
D., look innocent if you can ! ), tied me by my hair, and held 
me long in durance vile as a punishment for my annoying 
conduct. How grateful was I to my liberator (Mrs. M.), who 
by aid of scissors released me from my thraldom, and how 
richly I felt repaid for the loss of a lock of my red hair 
when the next morning I found on my desk a neat little 
note commencing, — 

" This bright golden tress I will cherish with care, 
Yes, Mary, I love it full well." 

None who participated can have forgotten our wonderful 
private examination in presence of the full " Board of Edu- 
cation " and many distinguished guests. Horace Mann, 
Dr. Howe, Dr. Putnam, might well be astonished at the 
words then put into their mouths by saucy girls. But men- 
tioning these gentlemen reminds me to dwell for a moment 
on the pleasure we took in their real visits. A new life 
seemed infused into us, and a new spirit into the text, if 
our friend Mr. Stetson did but visit us on " Way land " day. 
And even the most decided unbeliever in phrenology was 
glad to listen to one of Mr. Burton's lectures on the sub- 



8 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

ject. We liked the lecture no less than we admired the 
lecturer, but we did grumble over the five or six pages 
of "abstract" that, as a matter of course, must follow. 
There were many others, occasional visitors, who were 
always welcome. The names of Emerson and Dwight are 
familiar to us as household words. 

Then there was another class of guests that were met with 
smiles. Among these we of course class " the man in a 
million who can move his ears " and Professor Banton, who 
wanted to take all our profiles. We escaped easily, but 
poor Mr. Peirce could only do so by pleading " the young 
ladies have me in propria persona^^ or, as the Professor 
said, "in propriety and in person." The person still re- 
mained after this literal translation, but for once Mr. P.'s 
propriety nearly left him. 

Time has gently dealt with us, my sisters, in sparing so 
many to gather here to-day. We cannot hope it will be so 
long. We cannot hope to meet year by year with unbroken 
ranks. Time's wing may brush us lightly as it passes, but 
year by year we shall feel its power, for, — 

" Oh, the changes we have seen 

In the far and winding way ; 
The graves in our paths that have grown green, 

And the locks that have grown gray. 
The winters still our own may spare, 

The sable or the gold ; 
But we saw their snows upon brighter hair, 

And, friends, we are growing old ! " 

We are growing old ; a change will come to us, sickness may 
lay its withering hand on us, and death must come at last, — 
at last to all. As yet we mourn but one from our number ; 

but 

" One has departed from our little band 
To join another, in the Spirit land." 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 9 

And it is fitting on this day, when voices from the past are 
sounding in our ears, that we should remember her whose 
voice is silent now. That while we mourn " that the places 
that knew her shall know her no more forever/' we should 
recall her kindness, gentleness, and unvarying amiability. 
Perchance, ere another meeting, we may mourn another lost 
one. How warmly, then, should we greet each other on 
these annual meetings; how gladly as the roll is called 
should we list the answering response in the well remem- 
bered voice of other days ! How gratefully and affection- 
ately should we meet them without whose presence this 
meeting would scarce be a jubilee ! 

The following address was read by Miss Harris : — 

MISS Harris's address. 

A merry greeting to you, my sisters. I rejoice to meet 
you here again, in this place of youthful pastime and 
endeavor, after so many years' conflict with life's more 
serious duties. Methinks our meeting here to-day reads a 
most disastrous homily to those who prate about the weak- 
ness of schoolgirl friendship. No call from remnants of 
a parted band we have recently left has summoned us from 
our daily walk to-day ; no official call from an institution, 
bidding those who have gone out from it pause in their 
busier ways and renew the bond which other ties and duties 
had begun to weaken, has brought us together. But we 
come in obedience to that more earnest call which yearning 
hearts, thrilling with kindred memories, send forth to each 
other. And as we look about on these familiar faces, some 
of which we had thought to meet again only in grateful 
dreams, can we realize that long years have elapsed since 
we trod these streets as schoolgirls ? Do not those " merry 



10 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

days of yore " come thronging back till matron and spinster 
vanish and we see only joyful damsels, on mischievous 
thoughts intent, climbing neighboring hills to practice 
Collins's Ode on " The Passions," or congratulate " We 
men of Angiers on King John's approach " ? 

Their green veils " fly like banners in the wind," their 
tongues move so glibly, you would dare wager your next 
blackboard recitation some very pleasant nonsense is the 
theme. Can you not fancy the sober duties of the day 
suspended for a season, spirits all agog for a madcap 
froHc, one at the blackboard delineating " Square Roots " 
with most literal nicety ; another arranging " Geometrical 
Proportions " with a skillful use of initials admirably sug- 
gestive ; another in exceeding merry mood, bounding the 
State of Single Blessedness ? Alas ! it moves me to won- 
der, almost to lamentation, that we could jest upon the 
latter theme. What weightier proof of reckless indifference 
to life's saddest reahties can you recall, my single sisters ? 
That love of the ludicrous was one of our leading loves 
perhaps I need not remind you. That it would convert a 
theme so serious as the relative good bestowed on humanity 
by poets, philosophers, and historians into a eulogy on 
peddlers, fiddlers, and hatters is perhaps indirect proof 
that that love did not always divert us from the more prac- 
tical. Ay, those " merry days of yore," who of us can for- 
get them ? 

But on our return to-day there seems to be a division 
among us all unknown before. More dignified appellations 
are bestowed on some of you — bestowed here and now 
with mock solemnity, to be sure, and there is evident mean- 
ing in the mockery. 

While some of us are still accosted as of old by the plain 
terms Addie, Sarah, Louise, etc., here are Mrs. L. and Mrs. 



BECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 11 

C. and Mrs. B. and Mrs. D. and Mrs. M., etc., and very 
polite inquiries for little Freddie and young Lorenzo and 
a host of juveniles who seem to have some acknowledged 
relationship with us to-day. Ay, there is a mighty signifi- 
cance in all this, a fact which must be read, painful as may 
be the reading to a portion of us. Yes, my single sisters, 
what can we do but confess, before the happy, triumphant 
glances of those married ladies, that we have passed the fair 
springtime of our woman's life and left our great woman's 
mission all unfulfilled. Did we realize becomingly the 
miserable failure this fact bespeaks our lives, should we 
not have remained at home to-day, conjuring up the dole- 
ful spirit alone congenial to us, instead of coming up hither 
with so many of our band whom the fates have wedded so 
enviably and realize keenly that we alone are left ? Ay, 
this place of jubilee becomes us not. But a cordially 
written apology could not have much lessened our chagrin, 
though I for one have thought apologies might not be 
unbecoming or uncalled for upon an occasion like this 
when our shortcomings in this matter must be so very 
apparent. I of course can ofPer only my own, though we 
may guess as shrewdly as we please several others, if not 
all the rest. 

" Ye wedded wonderers," do you not see in our spinster 
ranks " women to have but one love in a lifetime " (me- 
thinks a merry sister is whispering in her neighbor's ear, 
" yes, and some to have but one less," but don't be cruelly 
facetious), women whom "disappointment's chastening rod" 
has doomed to the forlorn state we lament, but who, with 
less true and steadfast souls, might have escaped it, or 
women to whom the master spirit of the age could alone 
give back their own best thoughts, and he, by some perver- 
sity of fortune, is, perhaps, wedded to a good sort of dam- 



12 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

sel, who gapes in silent wonder at her knowing lord. I, for 
one, do not doubt this to have been the case in more than 
one instance. But you will see that my own apology does 
not bespeak so lofty a spiritual state. 

By a combination of circumstances which will sometimes 
occur in the best regulated families, household duties once 
devolved upon me in the family of Mrs. W., where I boarded, 
when I bustled round like a person of no small consequence, 
conscious of a little brief authority, and resolved to exercise 
it most becomingly. I had begun to flatter myself that 
this brief season would furnish materials for one of the 
fairest pages in my personal history, when a circumstance 
occurred to mar its beauty so effectually as to make me 
almost wish to blot out the very remembrance of it from 
my soul. 

Noon arrived ; the Rubicon, I thought, was passed, and 
my fame estabhshed on a foundation that would endure, 
and I was already reposing in imagination beneath the 
laurels I had won. 

I had baked some beans for dinner — of course felt very 
proud of the achievement — and everything was ready but 
removing the beans from the oven. 

One can hardly conceive the sweet satisfaction I felt as I 
seized the bean-pot, when, alas, it slipped my grasp, trans- 
ferred itself from a perpendicular to a horizontal position, 
when, alarmed and horror-struck lest my beans should be 
numbered among the things that were, I thrust my hands 
into the steaming oven, but sent them out at the opposite 
door on to the hearth, when, true to the laws which gov- 
erned earthen bean-pots, it broke, and had it been my heart 
itself it could not have produced in any other heart such a 
feeling of utter desolation and despair. 

A few of the beans were rescued uninjured, but the feel- 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 13 

ing of chagrin and mortification it produced will, I fear, be 
a lifelong companion. I told Mrs. W. on her return that 
my beans were so very delicious they had eaten the bean- 
pot, too, and that was what had become of it. The story 
was so very reasonable that she of course believed it. Now 
will you wonder that with the smallest remnant of a con- 
science I have never so far endangered my own peace or 
dignity, or so far imposed upon any son of Adam as to 
locate myself where similar duties would devolve upon me ? 

You see I am taking for granted that no stern necessity, 
or what with ordinary souls would be deemed such, has 
consigned us to our present fate. Methinks your faces do 
not bespeak your minds free from doubts. Very well ; you 
might entertain them on graver subjects. 

But as we return here to-day to commemorate joyfully 
" the days that are no more," we surely recall other deeper 
things than would mark us only as merry triflers, whose 
mental stature is as small to-day as yesterday. Hours of 
youthful pastime, dear and pleasant as they may have been to 
us, and truly right as was their seasonable indulgence, were 
not the hours when were woven those more indissoluble ties 
we must to-day have felt bound us to each other. We not 
only laughed and reveled, but thought and strove together. 
Truth was revealed to us from lips worthy its sublime ut- 
terance, and we Hstened, too heedlessly, perhaps, at times, 
but we trust it fell not on stony ground. Words, peace 
inspiring as the " benediction that follows after prayer," 
were spoken in our ears, and our hearts throbbed with kin- 
dred feelings. Ay, prayer itself rose daily from an earnest, 
unselfish, devout heart for us the children of its care, and 
that heart still beats kindly for us. Yes, he to whom we 
looked for guidance then is with us now, his very presence 
speaking to us of lofty genuine attainments, bidding us 



14 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

trample under foot all that would lure us from our onward 
way. Since last his presence cheered us, he has trodden 
the soil of the old world. He has contemplated thought- 
fully her institutions, reverently all that was noble and 
good and true in them ; he has conversed with her sages 
and sympathized, we know how sincerely, with her down- 
trodden, ignorant children, and he has returned laden with 
rich experiences. A most cordial, heartfelt welcome do we 
tender him and his best earthly friend to-day, amid scenes 
with which they are so intimately associated. 

And one word more, my sisters. We have returned to 
a spot endeared to us by sacred memories. " Each hill and 
dale " speaks to us of younger — perhaps merrier — I trust 
not happier days. We went forth together, but our ways 
parted at the very threshold. We have known something, 
not much, perhaps, of each other's experiences, but we know 
that we return not as we went forth. We have borne a part 
in "life's ceaseless toil and endeavor," and no doubt some- 
times wished for serener waters as we battled with the vex- 
ations of our human lot, but I trust we have never fainted 
for lack of strength to conquer. Dear and holy ties, too, 
have been sundered. Into some of your homes the beau- 
tiful have come and vanished ; but has not the light they 
shed, during their brief sojourn, lingered, a holy radiance in 
those homes, reveahng to the spirit's eye mysteries all sealed 
before ? 

From some, the very pillars, as it were, on which they had 
leaned for support have fallen. But has not their own 
inner life become thereby exalted and purified, and have 
they not indeed felt there was "a voice from the tomb 
sweeter than song " ? Should we again rally around this 
spot we have loved so well, may it be with hearts as warm 
and true as we would wish to meet here. Should time's 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 15 

changes forbid us again to meet, " pictured in memory's 
mellowing glass/' may we often and lovingly contemplate 
the scenes and the day we commemorate to-day. And as 
" memory plays an old tune 'round our hearts," may they 
be touched to fine and noble issues. As we return to the 
duties amid which we have paused, may it not be with vain 
and idle longings for the more careless joys of our school- 
girl life, but with noble aspirings in our souls, bidding us 
" press on in our woman's paths," exalt our spirits above 
the jarring din of circumstances, and purify them from all 
which may have obscured their diviner gHmpses. 

The following account of this meeting, from the pen 
of Mary Stodder Loring, appeared in the " Traveller " of 
October 1 : — 

CLASS CELEBRATION AT LEXINGTON OF GRADUATES 
OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL. 

Messrs. Editors, — It was my good fortune, a few days 
since, to attend a Normal Convention on a new plan. As 
you have occasionally favored the public with sketches 
of conventions at Newton, I have thought some account 
of this last gathering might be interesting to a portion of 
your readers. It may be well to premise a few words by 
way of explanation. 

Lexington has the honor of being the birthplace of Nor- 
malty, for it was there that, in 1839, was established the 
first Normal School in this country. It was estabhshed, as 
is well known, partly by the munificence of Hon. Edmund 
Dwight, and struggled along for the first few years of its 
existence against many unfavorable circumstances. Its 
opening was marked by the attendance of three young 
ladies as pupils, which number at the end of the first Nor- 



16 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

mal year had increased to twenty-five, a small band truly, 
but as Father Peirce often told us, " strength does not con- 
sist in numbers." 

Almost every Bostonian knows what the same school is 
now, with its numerous scholars, its teachers, assistants, and 
not least of all its popularity, and there are some few still 
remaining who know what it was then, with Father Peirce 
its only teacher and those twenty-five its only scholars. Is 
it too much to say that those few may echo the words that 
so often cheered us then, "strength does not consist in 
numbers " ? 

Within a few years the school has been removed to the 
village of West Newton and conventions have at intervals 
been holden, at which have gathered Normalites from the 
difPerent parts of oru* country, to which time and chance 
have scattered them. 

At the last Convention the delegation from the first Class 
was almost lost in the two or three hundred there present, 
and they felt more forcibly than ever that West Newton 
was not Lexington. A Class meeting was planned, a com- 
mittee appointed to make all necessary arrangements, the 
result being a Class celebration at Lexington on the 25th of 
September, 1850. 

Many of these young ladies have in ten years assumed 
the responsibihties and dignities of matrons, and they were 
courteously invited to take husbands and babies to the 
celebration. Some accepted, but, poor babies, even though 
they had a grandfather and grandmother present, they had 
so many aunts they could hardly make themselves heard. 
Many were the compliments received from the gentlemen 
who honored us with their presence, but I will not repeat 
them further than to say that the Committee of Arrange- 
ments deserved all possible credit for the way in which the 
whole affair was conducted. 



,■ ">.) 



'0m 




RECORDS OF TEE FIRST CLASS 17 

The forenoon was passed in social intercourse, affection- 
ate greetings, and reminiscences of long ago. It was 
unanimously voted that the Class was a remarkable Class 
and had lost nothing by the lapse of time, but still is 
remarkable. 

Permission having been granted by the teacher of the 
Academy, in a body we visited our old schoolhouse and 
greeted with much affection our old friend the blackboard. 
After a short walk to some of our old haunts, we returned 
to the Lexington House, where we partook of a nice colla- 
tion at which Rev. Father Peirce presided. The afternoon 
was set apart as a sort of levee to receive Lexington friends, 
and when at five o'clock we wended our way to the depot 
we had but one regret, which was that cars had superseded 
stagecoaches, so we could no longer say, — 

" Good Deacon Brown shall lead the way 
In which we all must go." 

We had during the day a very fine address from one of 
our number, which, in beauty of language, in adaptation to 
the purpose, and in humorous allusions, could hardly be 
surpassed. 



SECOND MEETING 

The second meeting of this Class was held at Lexington, 
September 24, 1851, at which thirteen were present. 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

Mrs. Mary A. Davis, Mrs. Rebecca M. Pennell, and 
Miss Sarah W. Wyman. 

The following members and friends were present : — 

Rev. and Mrs. Cyrus Peirce .... West Newton. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon Boston. 

Mrs. Mary A. Davis Lexington. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton Halifax. 

Lucy Morton Halifax. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jeduthan Richardson . Woburn. 

Albert Richardson Woburn. 

Mrs. Mary H. Loring Boston. 

Frederick W. Loring .... Boston. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Thompson . . Woburn. 

Jenny Lind Thompson .... Woburn. 

Miss Sarah W. Wyman Roxbury. 

Mrs. Abby M. Chandler Waltham. 

William T. Chandler .... Waltham. 

Miss Eliza Ann Rogers Billerica. 

Mrs. Hannah P. Blodgett West Amesbury. 

The following was written for the " Traveller " by Rev. 
Cyrus Peirce, first principal : — 



BECOKDS OF TEE FIBST CLASS 19 

NORMAL AND EDUCATIONAL REMINISCENCES. 

The Pioneers in Normalty, those who began, in 1839, the 
battle against ignorance and bad teaching on the plains of 
Lexington, already renowned in history for another and far 
different conflict, held a gathering on Wednesday last, at 
the spot where in years gone by they had met, few in num- 
ber, yet strong and fervent in spirit, pledging themselves 
to each other and to the cause of education. It was no 
meeting of mere ceremonious greeting ; it was full of deep, 
earnest feeling, joyous, yea, very joyous indeed, yet having 
a joy tempered by recognitions and reminiscences that take 
hold on the great sober reaHties of life. 
. It has been said by one who knows them well, has known 
them from the beginning, that they were always a harmoni- 
ous, united, earnest, devoted, happy band, full of the right 
spirit, just right to secure success to a new and at that time 
doubtful enterprise. What they at the first promised, they 
have, in the interval of twelve years, proved themselves to 
be. They have labored much and long and well. Many 
of them are still in the field. And it is believed there is no 
injustice done to others in saying that the present good 
condition of the Normal Schools, and the hopeful prospects 
of the Educational Movement are owing much to the great 
good done in the successful experiments made by those who 
first entered the field of teaching as graduates from the 
Normal School. Let the friends of education, the friends 
of the Common School, hold them in just esteem, in long 
and grateful remembrance. They have done well. Their 
works shall follow them, and not a few at the mention of 
their name will rise up and call them blessed. They were 
in the school in the days of its weakness and darkness, in 
days that tried even earnest souls, in days when all was 



20 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

untried and uncertain, when friends were few and anxious, 
when many doubted, and not a few were hostile. As they 
reviewed together the past, and recounted the scenes, the 
trials and joys of Normal days, as they talked of present 
experiences and interests, and school labors and family 
duties, and hinted at the changes, sad or joyous, which had 
not yet come, but which might await them in the unseen 
and indefinite future, it is not strange that, stirred by such 
remembrances, experiences, hopes, and apprehensions, their 
hearts should burn within them, and that they should say, 
in the fullness of their strong and joyous emotion, " it is 
good for us to be here ! " 

After first greetings and salutations were over (and truly 
earnest and hearty they were) and an hour or two spent in 
free conversation, the company listened to a neatly written 
and very appropriate address from Mrs. Mary Stodder Lor- 
ing, the projector and first editor of " The Normal Experi- 
ment," a journal which, I believe, still lives in Normalty. 
Miss Stodder always wrote well, her teacher says, and this 
address was proof enough that she had not lost the power. 
If I can obtain a copy I shall send it entire, or some 
extracts from it, to the office of the " Traveller " for publi- 
cation. 

After the address the Class were regaled with a poetical 
effusion from the pen of Miss Hannah Damon, West Cam- 
bridge. Of this it is praise enough to say that it was well 
worthy of the author of " Change " (a poem which Miss 
Damon read in Hancock Grove at the first Normal Conven- 
tion, and of which a certain M. D. and honored son of 
Harvard, who was present and heard it, said "it would 
have done honor to a Phi Beta Kappa occasion "). Still 
Miss Damon, strange as it may appear, yet no more strange 
than true^ though she did so logically as well as beautifully 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 21 

and poetically, urge the doctrine of progress, i. e., " Change/' 
even in Normalites, against those who hold that they should 
live on indefinitely, or at least forty years, in single blessed- 
ness, has not yet changed her condition. Why, I know not. 
Father Peirce gently rebuked her for not practicing what 
she preached. I dare not say the fault is her own, I would 
believe it is owing to the dullness of men^s vision ; how- 
ever this may be, and whether it be loss or gain to her, I 
am sure it was all gain to the Common School and to the 
cause of education. At any rate, patiently may she afford 
to bide her time, conscious as she cannot but be that when 
all things are seen in their true light and receive their just 
deserts, then will be her glorious harvest-time, and many a 
heedless wight will chide (to use no harsher word) his eyes 
that they could not discern such worth. 

At two o'clock the party sat down to refreshments, which 
were very elegantly served by the landlord of the Lexing- 
ton House, under the direction of Mrs. Davis and her com- 
mittee. By request Father Peirce asked a blessing. The 
repast was enlivened by much pleasant remark and wit- 
ticism, for which due acknowledgment should be made to 
Miss Harris, of Roxbury, whose wit in days of yore had 
often caused Normal Hall to resound with merriment. 

I had well-nigh forgotten to mention one of the most 
interesting circumstances of the occasion. I refer to the 
presence of those " jewels," as the Roman matron signifi- 
cantly called them, the children which the mother Normals 
brought along with them, two boys and two girls, all 
"bright" and "beautiful." These imparted no little 
interest to the occasion. "Jenny Lind," child of Mrs. 
Thompson, of Woburn, is a very beauty, and already has 
as much music in her bright blue eyes as the very original 
herself. The announcement that, by one of those odd 



22 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

matrimonial freaks which Hymen sometimes perpetrates, 
one of the sisterhood had become grandmother, and Father 
Peirce, I had almost said in spite of his often repeated pre- 
cept, " Live to the truth," had been made great-grand- 
father , mightily stirred up the fountains of mirth. Father 
Peirce appeared to enjoy it much. The hope of living thus 
in the grateful acknowledgments of a distant Normal pos- 
terity seemed highly gratifying to the veteran teacher. 

After dinner, arrangements having been made for the 
next year's meeting and calls received from sundry lady 
citizens of Lexington, at about four o'clock Father Peirce, 
rising from his chair, said in his own peculiar way that it 
was about time for the old folks to retire and give the 
young ones a chance by themselves, and so having taken 
an affectionate leave of his children, as he called them, he 
with his good lady, kind Mother Peirce, set out on a seven 
and a half miles promenade to their residence in West New- 
ton. As the children had nothing to say or do which they 
were not willing their father should witness, the party soon 
broke up, all feeling, myself among the rest, that it had been 
a day of rare enjoyment and long to be remembered. 

An Invited Guest. 

song for the occasion by miss damon. 

{AiTf "Home Again.") 

Welcome day ! dawning o'er 

Kindred hearts that meet 
Amid the scenes where first they learned 

In sympathy to beat. 

Years have sped since here we wrought 

Together for a space, 
And still in life's stern struggle 

We have found a resting place. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 23 

Drear and wild, rougher yet, 

Grows the path we tread, 
And if some green oases rise 

'Tis where our tears were shed. 



Ever thus we must reach 

Bliss through toil and pain ; 
Then happy they who early learn 

To count their trials gain. 

Yet we will forget to-day 

All sorrow that is o'er^ 
Or only feel how much it binds 

Heart unto heart the more. 

Thoughts of ill, destined us 

In coming time to share, 
We '11 banish, or remember none 

Alone their burdens bear. 

Each for each, here we bring 

Greetings warm, sincere, 
The absent in affection hold. 

The dead deemed doubly dear; 

For we come at friendship's call 
To gather memory's flowers, 

And with the light of earlier days 
To gild the present hourSo 

Welcome day ! dawning o'er 

Kindred hearts that meet 
Amid the scenes where first they learned 

In sympathy to beat. 



THIRD MEETING 

Of the third Class Meeting held at Lexington, October 
13, 1852, there is no record beyond the names of those 
present and the letter from Mr. Peirce. 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

Mrs. Mary A. Davis and Miss Adeline M. Ireson. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Mrs. Harriet Peirce » o Waltham, 

Miss Hannah M. Damon Boston. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Adeline Mo Ireson Cambridge, 

MrSo Sarah E. Richardson . . . , . Woburn, 

Albert Richardson . . » . . . Woburn. 

Miss Rebecca M. Pennell West Newton. 

Mr. and Mrs. David Loring . . . Boston. 

Frederick W. Loring . . . o . Boston. 

David Loring, Jr . Boston, 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson ...... Boston. 

Helen Lamson Boston, 

Mrs. Sarah E. Clisby ....... Medford. 

Mr. and Mrs. Robert Adams .... Fall River. 

Miss Sarah W. Wyman Roxbury. 

Miss Eliza A. Rogers Billerica. 

Mrs, Amanda M. Simonds Lincoln, 

East Machias, Me., September 22, 1852. 

Miss Ireson: 

My dear Normal Daughter, — I thank you for your 
kind note inviting me to attend the Normal Class Gather- 
ing on the first Wednesday in October. I should be glad 



BECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 25 

to be with you^ but my duties here make it impossible. 
Give my fatherly love to the whole band, and say to them 
that the old gentleman has renewed his youth (i. e., got 
into his second childhood), put on his working dress, and 
gone into the field again. To speak without a figure, I am 
literally and actually here keeping school. I am on my 
fourth year of my second forty ! 

Again I say, remember me in love to all, and take care 
not to forget the grandchildren. 

I shall be with you in spirit. May the occasion be to 
you all truly and greatly joyful. 

Children — " Live to the Truth." 

Yours truly, 

C. Peirce. 



FOURTH MEETING 

A RAINY day prevented a large meeting of the Class on 
Wednesday, September 28, 1853 — but eight attending. 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

Mrs. Mary Ann Davis and Miss Louisa E. Harris. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Rev. and Mrs. Cyrus Peirce Waltham. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. John Davis Lexington. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton Halifax. 

Lucy Morton Halifax. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mr. and Mrs. David Loring Boston. 

Frederick W. Loring Boston. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. James F. Drummond . . Roxbury. 

Mrs. Harriet Cook, as guest Brookline. 

Miss Damon read to the assembled guests as follows : — 

Companions dear of school days now no more, 
Heart-cherished friends of later, riper years, 
Now, as in " Auld Lang Syne," ye bid me soar 
Where high the Muse's Mount its summit rears. 
And from limpid, living fountain there 
A draught of inspiration hither bear. 

Now as " Lang Syne " I strive and strive in vain 
Your bidding to obey to work your will, 
That sacred summit 't is not mine to gain, 
Not mine at that pure spring my cup to fill. 



BECOBDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 27 

Few and much favored of the gods are they 
Who thither find their heaven-appointed way. 

Forgive me that I can no offering bring 
Fitting to grace this happy festal hour ; 
If fervent wishes could my fancy win, 
Mine were the Poet's flight and magic power. 
Forgive me and receive with judgment kind 
This humble tribute of a willing mind. 

And since to-day I leave my daily toil 

To greet dear faces where dear scenes arise, 

To tread, Old Lexington, thy sacred soil 

"With those first known and loved beneath thy skies, 

Since yearly, pilgrim like, I turn to thee. 

The thoughts thou wakest now my theme shall be. 

Old Lexington ! to me a " household word," 
Yet wedded to a world-wide deathless fame, 
The well-springs of emotion deep are stirred. 
And swell for utterance as I breathe that name. 
A mighty influence mingles with the sound, 
" This place whereon we stand is holy ground." 

Fair Freedom, driven forth from older lands, 
Sought in this western world a refuge sure. 
And here her earliest, noblest altar stands. 
From spoilers' desecrating hands secure, 
Hallowed by patriots' prayers and martyrs' blood, 
And woman's, childhood's tears a priceless flood 

The hero's heart beats high as history tells 

That here our fathers dared heroic deeds. 

A freer, fuller gush his life-tide swells, 

A loftier impulse kindles while he reads. 

Through clouds of doubt Hope's day-star breaks anew, 

" How great the harvest sowed by laborers few ! " 

The wayworn exile, wandering far from home, 
Here turns aside, and kneeling on the sod. 



28 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

His eyes uplifted to the o'er-arching dome, 
Prays to our country's and his country's God ; 
Gives to the answering winds his bitter moans, 
And weeps his lost ones o'er our father's bones. 

For me, as Moslem to his Mecca turns 

His wistful frequent gaze, e'en so my heart 

Towards thee, dear Lexington, unceasing yearns, 

And will not from thy cherished memories part — 

More vital far to me than all the thought 

Thy boundless fame and glorious past have brought. 

Here many prophets to my soul were born — 

My hopeful soul ! They came as bright day-dreams, 

Bringing sweet promise of a roseate morn, 

And moon resplendent with meridian gleams, 

And evening all serene, whose guiding star 

Should light my spirit to its home afar. 

Ah ! that indeed was a blest golden age ; 
But darker ages followed all too fast. 
Anon life's volume showed a sadder page. 
Those bright but fleeting visions early passed, 
And yet I know they were not idle quite ; 
I only was too blind to read aright. 

Life in our childhood is a fairy tale ; 
In youth it changes to a sweet romance ; 
In riper years stern Tragedy all pale 
Answers at every turn our unveiled glance ; 
And then we backward look to re-peruse 
The joyous Past, and the dark Present lose. 

As the green, living ivy fondly clings 
To an old parapet or crumbling shrine, 
So mid the shattered and discordant strings 
Of the worn, weary heart, still intertwine 
Affections and dear memories of the Past. 
And till its final throb they yet must last. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 29 

They yet must last, and well for us they must, 
For when our brightest, dearest hopes are dead, 
Forth from their ashes springs a child-like trust, 
To bear us onward, upward in their stead ; 
Soul-sick we lay our burdens off and drink 
From Memory's healing waters, lest we sink ; 

We drink and gather courage while we quaff ; 
And though Life's mystery here we may not learn, 
We yet have learned to lean upon His staff, 
Who will not His dependent creatures spurn. 
The kingdom which our youthful dreams foretold. 
We in a future, brighter sphere may hold. 

Yes, it is good that we should hither come. 
To talk together of those vanished hours. 
Yet, if words fail us and our lips are dumb, 
The wayside stones are eloquent, the flowers. 
The trees, whose branches with a loving grace 
Bend low, as if to meet our fond embrace. 

And now I do bethink me that last spring, 

When the young leaves and buds were fresh and gay, 

And all the merry birds returned to sing, 

A lovely lady, dressed in bride's array. 

Plighted her love and faith with holy vow 

To him who is her happy husband now.^ 

They live not in the Past full well I know, 
Perchance their Present is so much of bliss, 
That for the Future they no care bestow. 
Long may they have such happiness as this ! 
With wealth of wishes for their lasting weal. 
To this my humble lay I set my seal. 

Miss Wyman, now Mrs. Drummond, was married the 2d of May, 1853. 



FIFTH MEETING 

Wednesday, September 27, 1854. 
To-day our Class held its Fifth Annual Meeting at the 
Lexington House, Lexington, thirteen Class Members being 
present, and the whole company numbering twenty-eight. 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

Mrs. Mary A. Davis and Miss Hannah M. Damon. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Kev. Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Peirce . . West Newton. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon Boston. 

Mrs. Mary A. Davis Lexington. 

Ellen Davis Lexington. 

Florence W. Davis Lexington. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton Halifax. 

Thomas D. Morton Halifax. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mrs. Sarah E. Richardson Woburn. 

Mr. and Mrs. David Loring .... Boston. 

Frederick W. Loring .... Boston. 

David Loring, Jr Boston. 

Harry P. Loring Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lamson .... Boston. 

Helen Lamson Boston. 

Mrs. Maria L. Thompson Woburn. 

Louis W. Thompson Woburn. 

Mrs. Sarah E. Clisby Medford. 

Mr. and Mrs. James F. Drummond . . Roxbury. 

Mrs. Hannah P. Blodgett West Amesbury. 

Addie M. Blodgett West Amesbury. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 31 

Miss Eliza Ann Rogers Billerica. 

Mr. Herman Rogers, as guest . . . Billerica. 

ADDRESS BY MRS. LYDIA H. MORTON. 

It is customary, I believe, on public occasions, for a 
speaker, when called for, to thank the audience for the 
honor conferred on him, and to beg their indulgence for a 
few moments, while he holds forth for an hour upon some 
favorite topic, and then sits down perfectly satisfied, him- 
self, with his performance, if he has failed to satisfy others. 

I cannot do my conscience the injustice to thank you, 
my sisters, for imposing on me a task so entirely above 
my capacity, and were it not that by refusing to comply 
with your wish others might be induced to follow my ex- 
ample, I would not have consented to come before you thus 
conspicuously. I think my friend, who named me for your 
contributor to-day, felt that it was due to my advanced 
years to give me a passing notice, and I cannot show my 
gratitude to her more signally than by naming her for our 
contributor at our next annual Class meeting. 

Well, now that I am really before you, and have under- 
taken to entertain you, I am at quite a loss for a subject ; 
for my friends who have preceded me have exhausted the 
subjects they have taken, and, consequently, have left me 
nothing to say in addition. 

I have thought that, perhaps, a glance at our school days 
might not be uninteresting, and I have ventured to draw a 
picture of our schoolroom and its inmates, as memory has 
delineated them on the mind's tablet after the lapse of four- 
teen years. 

Let us go back to that time in imagination, and fancy 
ourselves girls again in that old room, with its green topped 
desks, and its formidable blackboard, which suggests even 



32 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

now, to my mind at least, trials which no outsider ever 
dreamed of. 

Well, I see you all now in the identical seats you then 
occupied. 

Shall I name you? First came the elastic form and 
merry face of Mary Stodder, and beside her the no less 
merry face of Mary Swift, the Quakeress ; then the poetical 
Hannah Damon, who will ever be associated in our mind 
with " Lady of the Lake " and " Intrigue," which last allu- 
sion she will comprehend more readily than the most of you. 
Next, the kind-hearted and friendly Lydian Stow; the lovely 
face of her who has " gone to the spirit land ; " and the 
amiable Maria Smith — we, as a class, shall not soon forget 
her hospitahty. The mathematical Sarah Locke, the flash- 
ing eye of the brilliant Susan Burdick, the indefatigable 
Almira Locke, who would surmount all obstacles. The 
delicate form and quiet features of little Susan Woodman. 
The ingenuous countenance of our friend, Sarah Wyman, 
and the mirth loving Louise Harris, who never let slip a 
good opportunity to provoke a smile in study hours. The 
warm-hearted Hannah Rogers, and her cousin, the sincere 
friend, EHza Rogers, whom we only know to respect and 
love. The affectionate smiles of Rebecca Pennell and her 
sister, the petted Eliza. The spritely Addie Ireson, who 
was always at hand to do one a kindness, and the obhging 
Abbie Kimball, and the gentle-hearted Sarah Sparrell, the 
sympathizing friend, and the loved and lost Margaret 
O'Connor. Then, behind the door, sat Lydia H. Drew, 
whose advanced years probably gave her some claim to your 
notice. 

Such is the picture of the schoolroom as it was fourteen 
years ago, and those were pleasant hours which we spent in 
that room, hours of real enjoyment; and what contributed 



RECORDS OF TEE FIRST CLASS 33 

not a little to that enjoyment was the fact that we were all 
engaged in our studies with the same end in view, our 
hopes, our aims were directed to the same future, and of 
course there could be more sympathy of character and feel- 
ing. We had no aspirations which were not in common, 
and no hope beyond that of becoming successful normal 
teachers. That was "a consummation devoutly to be wished." 
To that end our studies were planned, our weekly lectures 
directed ; and if a thought strayed beyond the confines of a 
schoolroom, or lingered for a moment upon the possibility 
of ruling at the head of a household rather than a school- 
room, such a thought was instantly banished by the recol- 
lection that one of the principal conditions of our entering 
a Normal School was that we should serve as teachers for 
one year, at least, in our own State. 

For one, I can say that for such a defection the pupils of 
one school, at least, have great reason to rejoice. 

Our term expired ; we left our school and separated, most 
of us to take charge of schools. Some of you still remain 
in the capacity of teachers, true to the great principles on 
which you entered our Alma Mater. We look upon you, 
my sisters who still remain at your post of duty, not only 
with respect — we honor you. We appreciate your labor and 
your sacrifices for the cause of Normalty ; for we are sure 
nothing less than a sacred regard for Normal principles 
would have kept you so long at your post of duty, and we 
feel conscious that you must look upon us who so soon fal- 
tered, deserted your ranks, and left the high post for which 
we were trained, with disapprobation certainly, if not with 
contempt. 

Since we have thus fallen, my married sisters, it is due to 
ourselves, to the Normal School, and to our Normal teacher 
in particular, to observe that, although we have left our first 



34 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

love, and our path in life has taken another course, we know 
that the lessons we imbibed in that schoolroom have been 
carried with us in the particular sphere in which we have 
been called to move ; that we trust those Normal instructions 
have not been entirely lost upon us, but we hope we have 
carried them into our homes, so that our teacher may feel 
that his efforts and labor of love are not entirely in vain. 
To him and his esteemed partner we shall ever feel grate- 
ful that they bore with our youthful follies, and although 
we so often erred and caused them pain, yet they still re- 
member us, and still show their affection for us by making 
our number complete at these annual gatherings ; for when 
they shall cease to grace our company, the festivity will lose 
its greatest charm. 

To those of our friends who have united with us on this 
occasion, in behalf of my sisters let me extend to you the 
cordial hand of welcome greeting. Although we are not 
all present who constitute the Normal Class of 1839, yet in 
one sense we are nearly an unbroken company. As far as 
we can ascertain, death has taken but one of our number. 

Some have left to reside at such a distance that it is im- 
possible for them to be with us, yet I doubt not their hearts 
are with us to-day, and our hearts are with them, wishing 
most earnestly they could enjoy the festivities of this occa- 
sion as we do. We welcome you to our Httle gathering, 
and hope you may be so much gratified that you will be 
induced to cheer us by your presence on future occasions. 

Our beloved teacher and lady, together with our Normal 
sisters, I welcome to the scene of our earlier Hfe. Let 
us not forget the gratitude due to the great Disposer, that 
He has so signally blessed us with health and prosperity. 
Let us ever cherish in our heart of hearts the great princi- 
ples we received in yonder schoolroom ; let us ever retain 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 35 

the memory of our school days ; let these annual gatherings 
keep alive our love and sympathy for each other ; may no 
trifling circumstance keep us from meeting from year to 
year, while there shall be enough remaining to speak with 
love and affection of those who have passed away. 

REPORT OF THE MEETING. 

During the morning the company assembled in the par- 
lor of the Lexington House. At twelve o'clock noon the 
meeting was organized by the election of Miss Hannah M. 
Damon as presiding officer. Mrs. Mary A. Davis and Miss 
Rogers were appointed a Committee of Arrangements for 
the next Annual Meeting. Mrs. Mary S. Lamson was 
appointed to give the address on that occasion. Mrs. Mary 
A. Davis read letters from Mrs. Adams, of Fall River, Mrs. 
Simonds, of Lincoln, Mrs. Johnson, of Manchester, N. H., 
and Miss Pennell, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, expressive of 
regret that the writers would be unable to attend the meet- 
ing. Mrs. Morton then gave her address. 

At half past one o'clock the company adjourned to the 
dining hall. Rev. Mr. Peirce asked a blessing, after which 
dinner was discussed. Sentiments followed the dessert, 
Mrs. Mary A. Davis officiating as Toast Mistress. 

First. Father Peirce, the guide, counselor, and friend of 
our earlier days. To know how faithfully he guided, coun- 
seled, and befriended, behold him, loved and honored in 
our maturer years. 

This called for an affectionate and fatherly reply from 
Mr. Peirce, in which he assured his children that, so long 
as the possibilities should be his, he should be present with 
them on these occasions, which to him were renewing and 
strengthening. 

Second. Our beloved friend, Mrs. Peirce, ^^out of the 



36 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

good treasure of her heart, she brought forth good for us/' 
" she gave and it is given to her again. Good measure, 
pressed down, shaken together, and running over we give 
into her bosom." Mrs. Peirce responded that she felt so 
covered up by the overflow she must be excused from say- 
ing much ; besides, she thought it too late in life for her 
to become a successful speechmaker. She would leave the 
speechmaking to the younger ladies of the company, and 
only express her thanks for the compliment paid her, for 
she really felt much obliged. 

Third. The Orator of the day. She sang to us at 
twilight in the sentimental days of our girlhood, and we 
were raised and gladdened by the strain. She has spoken 
earnest, loving words to us now in the days of our woman- 
hood, and our hearts as gratefully acknowledge her power. 

Mrs. Morton replied that she had already done her pro- 
portion of talking, as the very complimentary sentiment by 
which she had been honored intimated. She would respond 
to it by offering the following : By virtue of the instruction 
received from our model teacher, we should make model 
schools, become model wives, and rear model children. 

In answer to this Mr. Peirce remarked that, judging from 
appearances, a large majority of the Normal School Class of 
1839 had " reached the mark of their high calling." 

Fourth. Our Wives. Bending gracefully to the yoke, 
may it prove easy. Bearing patiently the burden, may they 
find it light. 

In reply Mrs. Lamson said she supposed the sentiment 
just given was intended as a call for a speech from one of 
the wives. She had heretofore imagined that the only 
speechmaking looked for from wives was that sort popu- 
larly designated as '' Caudle Lectures," and surely anything 
of that kind would be quite inappropriate on the present 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 37 

occasion. She regretted very much the absence from this 
meeting of her old schoolroom mate, Mrs. Adams. Her 
well-known faith in " liberty of speech " for all, even 
women, would designate her, if present here, as the wife to 
reply on this occasion. She (Mrs. Lamson) could not make 
a speech, but she would give a sentiment — the Normal 
School ; its instructions are always valuable, whether we 
apply them to the teaching of units, tens, or hundreds. 

Fifth. Our Husband-men. May each find his estate an 
earthly paradise, a garden of Eden, and may he faithfully 
dress and keep it. 

Mr. Loring, in answer, called the attention of the com- 
pany to the blossom and buds which he had brought from 
his garden to grace the feast as testimonies of his careful 
fidelity. 

Sixth. Our Children. " A babe in a house is a well- 
spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love ; a rest- 
ing place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and 
men." 

Mrs. Loring said : As the baby of the Class, I claim 
the privilege of responding to the babies' toast. If you 
doubt my claim we will appeal to Father Peirce, who is 
looking on so benignly. He will yield it to me, for he 
recollects that he used to say one of my eyes would laugh 
while the other cried. Blessed privilege of babyhood and 
of girlhood no less, that has smiles even amid its tears ! 
Alas for the time that comes to so many, that may come to 
us all, when the tears flow with no smiles to lighten their 
gloom ! But my triple matronly dignity gives me yet 
another claim to your patience to-day. Triple ! Three 
times have I said with the poet, " a babe in the house is 
a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love," 
and if I say it with emphasis it is that I feel it heartily. 



38 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

These three jewels, how bright, how fair, is for you to say. 
I wilHngly wait your verdict. The pride that silly mothers 
take in their children finds its fitting resting place in me. 
Can you not sympathize with me ? God bless the babies ! 
and He does bless them, and He blesses us no less by the 
gift of them. He tunes our hearts to a holier hymn by the 
music of their voices, and awakens in us higher aspirations 
toward the Infinite with every unfolding of their minds. 
" Are they not all ministering spirits ? " My own little 
Harry, has he not been a ministering angel to us, coming 
to bless us as he did in the midst of our affliction, to draw 
our hearts from too sadly brooding over our sorrow, to 
draw our eyes from dwelling too long on the heavy shadow 
of death that darkened over our home, giving our years of 
mourning womanhood reason to smile amid our tears even 
as we found it in our girlhood. The deep sorrow, the 
heavy grief, the bitter agony that refuses to be comforted 
because they are not has thus far been spared to me. But 
I have mourned with you, my sisters, when the finger of 
God has lain heavy on your hearts. But do you not feel 
that they are all ministering spirits to you even now ? As 
you read those words, " Jesus called a little child and set 
him in the midst," can you not feel that — 

Not alone while here on earth 

Did Jesus call the child, 
For even yet we hear his voice, 

His gentle accents mild. 
We see him lay his hand again 

In blessing on their head, 
And radiant in glory, stand 

Beside their dying bed. 

Blessed be the babies ! God's holiest gift to us ! Our 
choicest treasure ! 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 39 

Seventh. Our Single Sisters. Loiterers in the land for- 
saken by so many of their sisters, Hke the five wise virgins 
of old, why don't they " trim their lamps and go forth to 
meet the bridegroom ? " 

Miss Harris said : The question put forward in the last 
toast strikes me as a rather delicate one to answer in this 
presence. Why don't we go forth to meet the bride- 
groom ? Perhaps we have been forth, and thwarted in our 
advance by the very eagerness with which we started ; but 
we should n't like to confess such a disaster here and now, 
of course. Or suppose, and I have my reasons for think- 
ing it very likely, we have never seen the bridegroom 
advancing we thought it worth our while to go forth and 
meet. Mark, I say advancing, for none of the married 
ladies present can scorn more heartily than I do the con- 
ceited apology frequently offered by single ones, that they 
have never seen the man that they could marry, which may 
be usually interpreted, I think, that they have never seen 
the man that would marry them. To have sojourned thirty 
years in the land, and among all the noble, goodly speci- 
mens of manhood to be met with, never to have caught 
a glimpse of one worthy such a blessed fate ! 'T is too 
absurd ! 'T is weakness all ! We are called loiterers in 
the land forsaken of our sisters. Well, after confessing 
we deem it a very goodly land they have entered, desirable 
beyond all others to which our sex are admitted if led 
there, if we believe them to have been, by noblest motives 
and a love so wedded to esteem that it shall not fail, need 
we be very explicit as to our reasons for our delay ? But 
lest our married sisters feel some anxiety as to the temper 
and spirit with which we shall meet them in future years, I 
think I may promise, in behalf of our single ones, that we 
will never join that forlorn and wretched wing of the spin- 



40 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

ster army who go through life grumbling or moping, as 
their temperaments may decide, on the incompleteness of 
their destiny. And may I not as confidently promise we 
will never weakly yield to that other, and to my mind far 
sadder destiny, of which the poet so finely sings : — 

" And as the dove to far Palmyra flying 

From where her native founts of Antioch beam, 
Weary, exhausted, longing, panting, sighing, 

Lights sadly at the desert's bitter stream, 
So many a soul o'er Life's drear desert facing 

Love's pure, congenial spring, unfound, unquaffed, 
Suffers, recoils, then thirsty, and despairing 

Of what it would, descends, and sips the nearest draught." 

At the close of the remarks by Miss Harris, Miss Damon 
announced as an item of news appropriate to the subject in 
hand the matrimonial engagement of Miss Pennell, to which 
she (Miss Pennell) had alluded in her letter in bespeaking 
a seat for herself and another at the festive board on our 
next anniversary. 

Mr. Peirce then gave Absent Members of the Class of 
1839. On our next anniversary may they be present with 
their classmates, and may each possess unquestionable cer- 
tificates that she has a claim to a double seat. 

Directly after, the company retired from the table to 
reassemble in the drawing-room. There Mrs. Morton pre- 
sented to Mrs. Peirce, in behalf of the Class, as a slight token 
of their love and esteem, an illustrated volume of Bunyan's 
" Pilgrim's Progress." At half past four p. m. the com- 
pany began to disperse. 



SIXTH MEETING 

The Sixth Annual Meeting of our Class was held at Lex- 
ington the last Wednesday in September, 1855, when eleven 
members were present. 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

Mrs. Mary Ann Davis and Miss Louisa E. Harris. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Mrs. Harriet Peirce West Newton. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. John Davis .... Lexington. 

Ellen Davis Lexington. 

Florence W. Davis Lexington. 

Alice P. Davis Lexington. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton Halifax. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mrs. Mary H. S. Loring Boston. 

Frederick W. Loring .... Boston. 

David Loring, Jr Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lamson . . . Boston. 

Helen Lamson Boston. 

Gardner S. Lamson Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. Lorenzo Clisby . . . Medford. 

Mr. and Mrs. James F. Drummond . Roxbury. 

Isaac Wyman Drummond . . . Roxbury. 

Miss Eliza Ann Rogers Billerica. 

Mrs. Lydia Ann Adams Fall River. 

Chauncey W. Chamberlain, a guest . West Cambridge. 

On the arrival of the company at Lexington, our spirits 



42 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

were dampened by the announcement that Mr. and Mrs. 
Peirce, probably, would not join us on account of the ill- 
ness of the former ; but Mrs. Peirce arriving soon after, 
we were assured that the friend whose presence seemed so 
necessary to the full enjoyment of our meeting was not 
seriously ill, and gladness began to rule the hour. During 
the morning, Mrs. Loring was chosen president of the day, 
when the usual arrangements were made for our next meet- 
ing — the necessary business comments being relieved of 
dryness by the wit and good humor that seasoned them. 
Mrs. Adams, of Fall River, was chosen to address the Class 
next year, but declined with so much spirit and firmness 
that the electors thought it discreet to yield and make an- 
other choice, — Miss Ireson, of Cambridge, — though Mrs. 
Adams was not relinquished without some very impressive 
as well as entertaining comments on the folly and mischief 
of her example, with allusion to the one precedent already 
furnished by Miss Pennell, now Mrs. Dean, who had done 
well, and was worthy imitation in many things, no doubt, 
but must be regarded as delinquent in this matter. Notes 
were also read by Mrs. Davis, an address was delivered by 
Mrs. Lamson, of Boston, and a walk taken by several of our 
company around the village where we used to ramble in the 
olden time. 

At two o'clock the company sat down to dinner, and 
the blessing was asked by Mr. Lamson. Some beautiful 
bouquets ornamented the table, the rarest of which was 
presented to Mrs. Lamson, the orator of the day. Wit 
sparkled, and that " genuine good humor which is the 
wine and oil of a merry meeting " prevailed. After dinner 
the following toasts were read by the president : — 

The Members of the First Normal Class. Though most 
of them have yielded to the pressure of besiegers, and have 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 43 

been taken by the enemy, yet a few, with Sebastopol obsti- 
nacy, still hold out, though their number grows " small by 
degrees and beautifully less." 

The Normal School — a doubly successful experiment. 
From it emanated Modern Teachers ; there are those here 
to testify it has furnished Model Wives and Mothers. The 
fiercest bachelor resolutions would be shaken were it known 
that there were " a few more of the same sort." 

Our Bond woman — 

" The Bond of union strong and sweet, 
The Bond of perfect peace." 

The last toast referred to Mrs. Bond, from the Sandwich 
Islands, who was expected to be present. 

When we rose from the table, refreshed by the goodly 
viands that had been spread so invitingly before us, we felt 
that our souls had found good cheer there also ; that if we 
had added nothing to the volume of profound table-talk, 
we had added a choice and memorable chapter to our own 
happiest experiences; a chapter we should many a day 
recall, and, perhaps, read for our refreshment in some hour 
of weariness. 

I should have mentioned in connection with the toasts 
offered at table the following song, written by Mrs. Loring, 
which was repeated by the company : — 

SONG OF THE PIONEER NORMALITES. 

We come, but not as first we came 

To this quiet country town, 

When the carriage we rode in was called a stage. 

And the driver was Deacon Brown. 

We came by railroad and by car. 

With fire and smoke and steam ; 

And worse than all and noisier far, 

The engine's piercing scream. 



44 FIBST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

As fast as the cars hurry over the track, 
Old scenes to view they bring, 
To days of old they carry us back, 
And this is the song we sing. 

We come, but not as first we came, 

A group of giggling girls, 

With hair in many a Kenwig braid. 

Or flowing in graceful curls. 

We come ; our curls are brushed aside. 

No braid is on our brow, 

But plain and smooth Madonna bands 

Adorn our features now. 

We come matured and sobered too 

By the weight of added years. 

By the burden of joys outweighed by griefs. 

And hopes o'erborne by fears. 

We come, etc. 

We come, but not as first we came. 

In girlhood's opening morn. 

Some come (Alas ! must it always be ?) 

Poor spinsters all forlorn ! 

And one, the bridal blushes yet 

Are glowing on her cheek, 

How gladly would we welcome her. 

The words of love to speak. 

We come, etc. 



'J 



We come as bride and matron too. 

And children round us press ; 

Their presence cheers and gladdens us. 

Their loving glances blest, 

Their voices waken in our hearts 

A flame of holy fire. 

By God's own spirit the spark was lit. 

That never shall expire. 

Oh, we would not resign these holier joys, 

Those loving voices drown, 

And come back to school at Lexington, 

In the stage coach of Deacon Brown. 



BECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 45 

The many beautiful children that graced the meeting 
added much to its completeness. They, too, seemed to real- 
ize that it was a festival day, and to be in holiday spirit. 
They were all charming ; and if some of the youngest were 
now and then more tuneful than a testy bachelor might ap- 
prove, the mothers and aunts knew it was excess of joy — 
and wondered at their powers of appreciation. 

When we parted at night it was with the happy assurance 
that the year, whatever changes it had wrought, had not 
dimmed the love that had once more brought us together; 
and with the hope that when the months again were chroni- 
cled, there would come with the tinting of the "autumn 
leaves " another of these blessed days of happy hours, when 
our hearts shall glow, not only " with the sense of present 
pleasure, but with pleasing thoughts, that in it there is life 
and food for future years." 

ADDRESS BY MRS. M. S. LAMSON. 

In the resolutions adopted by the Class, the orator of the 
day was allowed to select her own theme, the whole range 
of science and literature being left open to her, and on 
whatever subject she may bring her essay, we are therewith 
to be content. 

Let me give you my experience in searching for a subject 
on which to address you, and you will agree with me that 
there is not much danger that your minds will be taxed to 
listen to essays on ethics or physics to-day at least. 

What an interesting and instructive article might be 
written on the discoveries in the range of natural philo- 
sophy since we were scholars, thought I ; but instead of 
patiently investigating my subject, and nicely arranging the 
results therefrom for the benefit of my listeners, my brain 
goes dancing about the pages of that book entitled " Scien- 



46 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

tific Class Book/' or something like it — we could not have 
studied its title-page so thoroughly as we did the " Preface 
to Worcester/' or I should not be in doubt ; but this I 
do remember, how assiduously we applied ourselves to its 
black looking pages, wondering occasionally if the pub- 
lishers were to study it for long months as we did, whether 
they would not have chosen a clearer type, and given us a 
little wider margin to rest our aching eyes upon ; and then 
comes to mind that other book which furnished us with 
subjects for debate on the question whether ice cream or 
hot tea made one the cooler, in which Father Peirce alone 
contended for the latter. Out of these cogitations had 
not grown a very abstruse essay as you see, and I try physi- 
ology. Ideas like these suggest themselves : the great im- 
portance of the subject to us as mothers, the necessity of 
increased information among the people, especially of our 
own sex, as shown by Miss Beecher in her recent startling 
statistics of the health of females in our large cities and 
towns, and — and next, I find myself pondering upon our 
old recitations and abstracts, and the long practical exposi- 
tions of our faithful teacher, and at length come to the 
conclusion that it is in vain for me to attempt to think of 
anything else but Lexington days and Lexington scenes, 
and first and foremost, as actors, our teachers and ourselves ; 
now and then the good townsmen and women coming in as 
dramatis personce. 

Other subjects have their interests for us at other times, 
but when, as has been said, we are weary of so much 
monotony as this yearly talk of ourselves past, present, and 
future will make, I would most respectfully suggest that 
our change and variety should come from another source, 
that other topics be left for liege lords who, though they 
did not graduate at Lexington in "Class '39," yet are 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 47 

fairly adopted into it and will certainly share our duties and 
bear our burdens here as elsewhere. They cannot tell us 
what we did at Lexington, and will of necessity bring other 
matter. 

Having decided, then, that heart, not head, must work if I 
write at all, bear with me, my sisters, in some reflections on 
the day. 

This day — the last Wednesday of September — how it 
comes to be set apart in all our households and school 
arrangements, and associated with the brightest, happiest days 
of our lives ; so many thoughts centre upon it during the 
twelve months intervening, and so strange a power it has 
over us as face after face gathers here, we are carried back 
at once and involuntarily to '39, and we are what we were 
then ; and it will do for me to venture the remark that chil- 
dren, to say nothing of husbands, seem almost interlopers. 
We were schoolgirls of sixteen ; we must be the same now, 
so vividly come back our schoolgirl days. How vanisheth the 
pleasant illusion when the quiet voice of Father Peirce sounds, 
not saying, "Young ladies' class in physiology," but " How 
are you, Mrs. Loring? Your husband and children here?" 
Then the delirium passes off, and the quiet matron takes 
the place of the schoolgirl, the mother's pride of the girlish 
self-complacency, and we talk of present joys and sorrows ; 
and the sympathy of these kindred hearts enhances the one 
and so lightens the other that the day closes, leaving our 
hearts full of gratitude. To use a text so often quoted by 
our Father when invoking Heaven's blessing on our daily 
labors — " the lines have fallen to us in pleasant places," that 
our lots were cast together during that year of our lives, 
and under such circumstances, and though all other of 
earth's friendships may be transient and evanescent, the 
recurrence of this day assures us of the strength of our love 



48 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

for each other. Though oceans roll between and conti- 
nents divide us, the absent ones will be remembered and 
still cherished by those whose happier lot it is to see each 
other face to face. 

But in the place of spokesman of my Class this year, I 
must not omit the omnium gaihermn^ that pleasant and 
sad duty of chronicling the year's deeds. Each twelvemonth 
brings to us with the rest of humanity such change. Born, 
Married, Died, must each have their entries in our Class 
Calendar, as we write up the records in our family Bibles at 
home. 

Born — five precious souls, to bud, blossom, and bear 
fruit for eternity ! A Richardson, Davis, Lamson, Smith, 
Drummond ; fearful yet blessed charge ! May the record- 
ing angel write against each of our names as mothers, 
" faithful in all a mother's duties." 

We have been looking forward to the time when there 
would be too few of us left to have a formal meeting here, 
but were we not short-sighted ? Who can tell the end of 
these meetings, when our babes are early taught to antici- 
pate them, and many of them are even old enough to look 
forward to their return with interest second only to their 
mothers ? Our twenty-five names may no more be written 
on the list of those present, but will it cease to be a day for 
them to meet? 

Married — Mr. A. S. Dean to Miss Rebecca M. Pennell. 
Take courage, my sisters single, "the brightest gems lie 
deepest hid." There are stars whose light has not yet 
reached this world of ours, so say astronomers, and we, the 
matrons of the class, feel quite sure the day will come 
when your light shall be no longer hid ; and if it come not 
forth to shine with Drummond brightness, it may illumine 
some corner of a desolate heart (I mean not of Irish girls 
and boys in primary or grammar schools). 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 49 

But my solicitude for you had almost made me forgetful 
of my duty — to tender to our newly married sister the con- 
gratulations of the Class, married and single. After a long 
and useful course, deserving, we believe, the encomium. Well 
done, good and faithful teacher ! she has entered another 
sphere not the less difficult to fill. That in this she may be 
as successful and happy, surrounded by as favoring circum- 
stances, is the wish of our hearts. 

Died. — Again we have to mourn the loss of two of the 
lambs of our fold. Sad, indeed, is that affliction which has 
taken two from the same fireside. Our hearts bleed for 
you our sister, and would fain bear part of your sorrow ; 
we can, by our heartfelt sympathies, lighten somewhat the 
burden. Those only who have drunk of sorrow's cup know 
fully the value of sympathy. Part of your sorrow I have 
tasted, and now the memory of those days comes afresh to 
my mind. A helpless infant of days to care for, and that 
fearful fever scourge laid low my second born. As my dar- 
ling was taken from me for other hands to minister to her 
wants, words cannot tell the anguish, the long, long nights 
of anxious listening for sounds from that other sick room, 
the trembling hope that each day would bring relief, — all 
this you have passed through and more. A kind Provi- 
dence has spared me that deeper sorrow which has been 
yours. Taken from the trials and temptations of the 
world, your little ones are at rest, and looking to them may 
your upward path be made easier. Long years must pass 
before a wound so deep can be healed, but may our Hea- 
venly Father give to you ^^the oil of joy for mourning," and 
at last may you be able to say " it is good for me that I have 
been afflicted." 

And now, our faithful teacher, we come as a united band, 
to offer anew our congratulations to you, and to thank that 



50 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

Providence which spared you to us year after year. Sixty- 
eight have our numbers become, for we presume, as other 
fathers blessed with a family of twenty-five daughters, you 
welcome your sons-in-law, and would number them in your 
tribe. 

With the patriarchs you may say, you have lived to enjoy 
a goodly heritage. 

Long may we all be spared, parents and children, to make 
the yearly pilgrimage to this our Mecca. 



SEVENTH MEETING 

On Wednesday, September 24, 1856, our Class held its 
Seventh Annual Meeting at the Lexington House, Lexing- 
ton, nine members being present. 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 

Mrs. Mary Ann Davis and Mrs. Sarah Drummond. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Rev. Mr. and Mrs. Cyrus Peirce . . West Newton. 

Mrs. Mary Ann Davis Lexington. 

Ellen Davis Lexington. 

Florence W. Davis .... Lexington. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton Halifax. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mrs. Mary H. Loring Boston. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Boston. 

Helen Lamson Boston. 

Mrs. Sarah W. Drummond .... Roxbury. 

Isaac Wyman Drummond . . Roxbury. 

Miss Eliza Ann Rogers Billerica. 

Mrs. Hannah P. Blodgett .... West Amesbury. 

Addie M. Blodgett .... West Amesbury. 

Mr. Hermon Rogers, a guest . . . Billerica. 

ADDRESS BY MISS IRESON. 

Classmates and Friends, — At our last meeting you 
did me the honor to appoint me to address you on the 
present occasion. Having declined the appointment, you 
decided to release me on the sole condition of my bringing 



52 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

with me a husband. Having with my most earnest en- 
deavors failed to accomplish so glorious a purpose, I come 
to cast myself on your sympathy. Whether any additional 
task should be imposed on one thus disappointed in the 
main chance of life, I leave you to determine. 

Not long since I heard a learned doctor argue that it 
was never intended by divine Providence that a woman 
should Hve single — judging either from her physical, intel- 
lectual, or moral nature, and that, if from any unfortunate 
circumstances such a thing should occur, she should be sup- 
ported by a salary from the pubhc fund. 

The salary I should by no means object to, but the idea 
of being an anomaly in creation is not quite so agreeable. 
The number of single women in the world would presup- 
pose too many mistakes in divine Providence to consist with 
the wise and harmonious arrangement of all things. 

No ! my single sisters, beautiful as it is to look upon our 
sisters fulfilling all the higher relations of life, pattern 
wives and mothers, as we may justly call them, I believe 
there is yet a sphere of duty and of happiness for us, and 
that the sphere of every true woman is the affections. 

Do not suppose for a moment that I think you need con- 
solation and sympathy. I see no evidence at present of 
your pining in loneliness and desolation, but they tell us 
that a single woman becomes selfish, absorbed in her own 
interests, unmindful of the interests of others. Need it be 
so? Is it so? The name of Florence Nightingale stands 
not alone in the world's history of self-sacrifice and devo- 
tion to the poor and suffering. Are there not many in our 
own immediate circle, full of all generous impulses and for- 
getf ulness of self ? Let us, then, stand each in our allotted 
sphere with a calm trust in that Providence which does all 
things wisely, and never cease assuring our married sisters 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 63 

that, though we bring with us no husband, we do bring with 
us hearts whose freshness is not all withered, but alive with 
sympathy for them and for each other. 

Another year has passed and brought us to this our 
Seventh Anniversary. Our number remains unbroken, 
though changes, mournful and joyous, have come to most 
of us. Some have been called to watch over the sick and 
dying bed of those near and dear to them, and as that tie 
was severed there seemed Httle left to bind them to earth. 
We miss the pleasant face of one who has always been with 
us. May her sojourn be short, and may she find in the far 
West her heart's treasure, richer than all the treasures of 
the East. 

Two new blossoms have been added to our garland. 
One little bud just opened here has been transplanted to 
a more genial clime. May all our Httle treasures be so 
watched over and cherished here that they may hereafter 
bloom in " those everlasting gardens," 

"Where angels watch, and seraphs are the wardens." 

Our dear Father Peirce, whose absence from our last 
gathering we so much mourned, has been spared to meet 
with us again. As we recall the memories of other days, 
how vividly come to our minds his kindly admonitions, the 
counsel we did not always heed. We thank him for his 
forgiveness of our waywardness and the affectionate inter- 
est he continues to manifest in us. 

How full of interest is this day to us all ! How many 
associations and memories of other days cluster about it ; 
how forcibly are we carried back to the old schoolroom, the 
gentle stroke of the morning bell, the calm voice of our 
teacher in devotion, or, more impressive still, the season of 
silent prayer, when the most thoughtless and trifling could 
not fail to be subdued to reverence. 



54 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

May we cherish our love for this day. Let the children 
continue to anticipate its coming, and as the time must 
come when one by one our places shall be vacant, may it be 
their pleasure to perpetuate its memory, and at last may we 
meet an unbroken circle in that world where there shall be 
no more partings. 



EIGHTH MEETING 

Wednesday, September 9, 1857. 
Our Class held its Eighth Annual Meeting at the Marl- 
boro Hotel, Boston, there being twelve members of the 
Class present. 

COMMITTEE OF ARRANGEMENTS. 
Mrs. Loring and Mrs. Lamson. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Rev. and Mrs. Cyrus Peirce .... West Newton. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon West Cambridge. 

Rev. and Mrs. J. B. Johnson .... Greenwood. 

Arabella Johnson Greenwood. 

Mrs. Mary Ann Davis Lexington. 

Ellen Davis Lexington. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton Halifax. 

Lucy W. Morton Halifax. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mrs. David Loring Boston. 

Frederick W. Loring .... Boston. 

David Loring, Jr Boston. 

Harry P. Loring Boston. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Boston. 

Helen Lamson Boston. 

Gardner S. Lamson Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Thompson . . Woburn. 

Jennie L. Thompson Woburn. 

L. Waldo Thompson .... Woburn. 

Nelly Thompson Woburn. 

Mrs. Sarah W. Drummond .... New York. 



56 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

Miss Eliza A. Kogers Billerica. 

Mrs. Hannah P. Blodgett West Amesbury. 

Mr. Chauncey W. Chamberlain, a guest West Cambridge. 

We many of us missed the hearty greeting at the depot 
and the pleasant ride to Lexington which had heretofore 
commenced the pleasures of our Annual Class Day, but as 
one after another arrived at the place assigned for our 
meeting, the affectionate greeting with which they were 
met showed that our friendships and the joy of our meet- 
ings were not dependent on place. 

One familiar face was that of Miss A. Locke, now Mrs. 
Johnson, whom most of us had not seen since our school 
days at Lexington, and who served to call up those bygone 
days most vividly. 

The morning was spent in social intercourse. About 
twelve o'clock the meeting was called to order to listen 
to an address by Father Peirce. Dinner was announced 
before the address was concluded, and it was decided to 
postpone the conclusion of it till after dinner. 

The divine blessing was invoked by Father Peirce. 
After the creature comforts which loaded the table had re- 
ceived due attention the following sentiments were given : 

First. Father Peirce. He has borne the heat and bur- 
den of a long and prosperous day. Prolonged and tranquil 
and beautiful may its twilight hour be, followed by an 
evening so radiant with the stars of memory and faith and 
hope that no darkness shall ever visit him. 

Mr. Peirce made a few remarks in reply, thanking the 
Class most sincerely for their kind wishes, but said they 
must excuse him from making a speech, and he would 
give as a sentiment. The Class of 1839 and '40. By their 
energy and perseverance they saved the Normal experiment 
from shipwreck ! He added : " Mr. Barnard, of Connecti- 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 57 

cut, was pleased to remark to me on a visit he made to Nor- 
malty (though I cannot agree with him) that had the Nor- 
mal experiment been committed to any other pilot it would 
have suffered shipwreck, and the cause of Normal Schools 
have been put back fifty years. I am sure there is much 
more foundation for my sentiment than for his." 

Second. Mrs. Peirce. Long may she cheer us by her 
presence, and drink from the fountains of our love. 

Mrs. Peirce said we must not expect a speech from her, 
but she took this opportunity to present the Class with a 
very fine daguerreotype of Father Peirce, and told us that 
a memoir of him was in preparation, which would be em- 
bellished with a likeness. She had wished to present each 
member of the Class with this, but it was rather too much 
for her means. Mr. Peirce gave us each a copy of an essay 
on " Crime, its Causes and Cure," read by him before the 
American Institute of Instruction. 

Third. Lexington. Dear to a nation's heart as the birth- 
place of strength and confidence in a holy and struggling 
cause ; dear also to our hearts as the birthplace of friend- 
ships which to-day reassures us " were not born to die." 

Fourth. Our Committee of Arrangements. They have 
changed our place of meeting, they would be the last to 
change its character or spirit. 

When we returned to the parlor. Father Peirce renewed 
the reading of his address. We left immediately upon its 
close. Arrangements for the next meeting were made. 
Miss Damon was chosen to deliver the address on that oc- 
casion. 

All expressed themselves much gratified with the accom- 
modations furnished us, and it was unanimously decided that 
— though we did not forget Lexington, and hoped occasion- 
ally to make a pilgrimage there — our next meeting should 



58 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

be held at the same place, at such time as the Committee of 
Arrangements should find most convenient for the majority. 

(On account of the difficulty of making early connection 
with trains for Lexington, it had been found necessary to 
change the place of meeting to Boston.) 

I must not close the account of the meeting without a 
tribute to the most interesting part of our number — the 
children. Though confined to narrower limits than at Lex- 
ington, they appeared to enjoy the occasion ; were present 
during the whole of Father Peirce's address, and by their 
great propriety of behavior won for themselves golden 
opinions. One of their maiden aunts remarked that she 
saw a good many children in different families, but it was 
difficult to find any as well behaved as these, her Normal 
nieces and nephews. 

Another of our pleasant reunions has passed, and it seems 
probable that our friends will be more widely scattered be- 
fore another year comes round, but we trust that distance 
will not sever those friendships which these meetings have 
done so much to preserve and strengthen. 

ADDRESS BY REV. MR. PEIRCE. 

After an extemporaneous introduction, recognizing the 
occasion as one of joyous and grateful emotion, he an- 
nounced his subject, — " Children.'* 

Why chosen ? — all have an interest in children, either 
as parents, or as teachers, or as both. Children — of how 
many of our cares and joys, interests and hopes, are they 
the centre ! How much of life relates to them ! How much 
is dependent on them ! Children, then, are our theme. Some 
of the principles to be recognized in their education, to- 
gether with notice of some of the false notions and methods 
prevaiHng in relation to that important business. 



BECOBDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 59 

I am under no temptation to speak in any other than a 
spirit of kindness ; while I would feel free from all anxiety 
in regard either to indorsing or assailing the views of any 
who may hear me, or any established or popular theories. 

This, you will say, is the old topic. True, but one in 
which I hope you still have an interest as parents and prac- 
tical teachers, and an increasing interest. It is the subject 
of the words I first addressed to you eighteen years ago. 
It may properly make the subject of this my last address. 
You may see what change, if any, the interval hath 
wrought. 

My first remark, and the basis, indeed, of aU I have to 
say, is that all education, both theoretical and practical, 
should imply a recognition of the truth, — all truth, espe- 
cially all Christian truth. This is a proposition so simple, 
plain, and generally admitted, that it may seem superfluous 
to state it. But, as simple and plain as it is, much, yes 
most, of the education that is going on in the world either 
is itself an error, or assumes error for a basis. " For this 
end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, 
that I should bear witness unto the truth," said the Great 
Teacher. 

Education should be a teaching of the truth ; for the 
want of this nothing can compensate, neither strength of 
argument, nor beauty of composition, nor elegance of lan- 
guage, nor ingenuity of theory, nor any other thing. Truth, 
truth, — the great Bowditch used to say, — give us the 
truth. Yes, all that is really worth anything is the truth. 
Truth in theory and principle, truth in spirit and motive, 
truth in manner and form, truth physical, truth intellectual, 
and truth moral. All truth is of God ; all parts are in 
harmony ; all have one end. 

Education is, in fact, the great business of the world. It 



60 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

is going on not only in the schoolroom, but in the church, 
in the family, and, more than all, in the great theatre of 
life. The world, and more than half of it in all these places, 
is virtually a practical, if not a theoretical denial of the 
truth, of the truth as it is in Jesus, and Httle better than a 
refined heathenism. It is selfishness, it is pride, it is osten- 
tation, it is worldhness, it is idolatry. The various Christian 
sects have their creeds, their forms, their associations, and 
plans of operation ; but, after all, when we come to look at 
the result, when we consider what society is, what the world, 
the Christian world is, what the men and people are in 
actual life, — not those only who do not acknowledge the 
church and have not been instructed in it, but those who 
have been born, at least have been brought up, within its 
pale, and have grown up under its influence, — when we look 
at their character, I might say their Christianity, and com- 
pare it with the Christianity of Christ and of the gospel, 
are we not struck with the contrast ; and is not the convic- 
tion forced upon us that there is something in the processes 
of education wherever it is going on, either in or out of 
the church, greatly wrong ? Look at Christianity as marked 
out in the pages of the gospel ; compare it with the Chris- 
tianity of the actual, living, professedly Christian world. 
Can you make one a facsimile of the other? Do they 
agree even in the great outlines, in the essential features ? 
Does the one bear the impress of the other ? To this in- 
quiry there can be but one response, — " I am the Light of 
the World ; " and what does that Light show us is the chief 
good — the end of life ? It is, in a word, moral excellence. 
It is righteousness, holiness, godliness. This it is which is 
profitable for all things. This was the true exaltation of 
Christ, and by this is our Heavenly Father glorified. And 
now, in all sincerity, I ask, is this either the aim or the 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 61 

effect of the education that is going on in the world, — the 
Christian world, — in our schools and families and churches? 
Do Christian parents, or Christian teachers anywhere, strive 
to make their children believe that this is the one thing 
needful, — the " pearl of great price ? " " Oh ! yes," I hear 
a multitude reply. I know they do theoretically, and by 
precept ; but do they really, do they by life and example ? 

Do we find this education going on at work among us ? 
Who but must confess another spirit is dominant in the 
world — another and widely different spirit rules in the hearts 
and shapes the destiny of men. Are not men, — men gen- 
erally, old men and young men, men and women and chil- 
dren, — all around us, seeking wealth, place, promotion, 
pleasure, with a stronger desire and more earnest intent 
than godliness ? Are they not more desirous to become 
rich men, great men, than good men? And further, are 
they not taught to be and to do this by the spirit and the 
example of those who constitute our churches, teach in our 
schools, rule over our households, that throng our streets 
and places of business ? True it is, and pity is it that 't is 
true, that a worldly spirit holds the world in abeyance ; it 
holds the ascendency in the great process of education, in 
society, in our best schools, and in our most Christian 
families, to say nothing of our churches. 

This is the education we are sustaining, praying for, and 
praising. The outlays we make for training our children 
are mainly directed to their secular good, to fit them for 
business, for the interests of the world, to secure its riches, 
honors, and emoluments — to make gain rather than secure 
godliness. 

It will not be for a moment pretended that it is to build 
up the spiritual man, and fit him for the kingdom of God. 
But all education does not lie in direct instruction. It is 



62 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

not all or chiefly iu the schools, or in the pulpit, or in the 
family. It lies as much as in anything, perhaps more than 
in all things, — in fashion, usage, custom, in street scenes, 
and every-day exhibitions, — in a word, in example. 

It is found in the customs and fashions of society, of the 
family, and especially of parents in the unexpressed wish, 
plans, or purpose, that are only seen and known as they are 
attempted to be brought out in the process of execution. 
Few, indeed, are the families, I think, in which the children 
are made to feel, by anything they see in the example of 
parents, that there are greater and better interests to be 
gained than riches, place, and power ; very few, where the 
plans and purposes, the spirit, couversation, and example of 
parents and teachers are habitually such as to lead the 
children to seek, as a higher good, the more enduring 
riches of the spiritual life. 

Of the multitude who profess Christ, few show by their 
conversation and life that they are seeking first the King- 
dom of God. They are more distinguished for pride, 
ambition, and vainglory than for the grace of meekness, 
patience, and charity. And of those who preach the gos- 
pel, many evidently have not waited for its baptism. They 
are proud, fond of distinction, having respect to persons, 
with little sympathy for theology, showing most satisfac- 
torily though they be teachers in Israel they have yet much 
to learn. 

Now my opinion is this : that the education of a Christian 
community should be truly and essentially Christian, and in 
its schools, churches, and famihes, in its opinions and prac- 
tices, Christian. With us it is not so. It is essentially 
worldly and heathenish. So it is in our schools and fami- 
lies, to say nothing of our churches ; so it is in society at 
large. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 63 

The influence exerted upon children, the outlays and 
anxieties put forth in their behalf, more than half have ref- 
erence to their wordly prosperity. The training of children 
is based on a false estimate, on a material, sensual philoso- 
phy, that temporal prosperity — worldly elevation — is the 
chief good of man. Whereas, in its principles and pro- 
cesses, in its beginning, and all along in progress, there 
should be a recognition of the Truth, and especially with 
us a Christian truth. It impHes, on the one hand, a doing, 
a carrying out, of all the truth requires, and on the other a 
giving up and sacrifice of all in opinion or practice, in cus- 
tom, sentiment, or feeling, that the gospel condemns or 
ignores. We have no right to be ourselves ; we have no 
right to educate our children to be anything but Christians. 
Education should hold no parley, should make no compro- 
mise with any thing, custom or doctrine, that contravenes 
or io^nores the truth. 

You say, if the case be so with education, it becomes an 
impracticable work. Who is sufficient for these things ? 

If qualified educators could be found, such is the state of 
public sentiment, there would be no field for them to labor 
in. I am aware that the true educator, into whatever field 
he may be called, will find difficulty. All true life involves 
conflict, and sorry I am that so few are found ready and 
willing to meet it. But whether many or few, educators 
should be true in theory, true in spirit and motive, and true 
in practice. 

I do not want our schools to lay aside grammar, arith- 
metic, and geography, and go teaching theology ; but I do 
think that moral training in some form should hold a place 
in school discipline, and that equally with grammar, arith- 
metic, and other secular branches. The spiritual nature of 
the child, his immortal interests, should be cared for as well 



64 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

as his worldly thrift. While in places of education, surely 
he should feel that he is breathing a moral atmosphere. 

But I find I do not reach my idea. I do not touch the 
bottom of the case. We want — the great educational need 
of the age is — a training, a discipline, for boys and girls, 
young men and maidens, and everybody in the schoolroom 
and family and everywhere, directed, controlled, spiritual- 
ized, sanctified, by religious truth, the grace of the gospel ; 
not set forth in set speeches, stated lectures, or prescribed 
formulas, but expressed, manifested, enforced, by the every- 
day life, manners, conversation, spirit, and temper of all 
educators, whether parents or teachers or others, who by 
precept or example are doing anything to educate the world. 
What we want is to send forth to this work a spirit, influ- 
ence, power which will paralyze, extirpate, annihilate this 
heathenish idea which lies at the bottom and shapes the 
form of almost all human plans and enterprises, especially 
in the outset of life, — that wealth, fame, power are the 
highest, the proper aim of man. I would not have children 
feel as they often must feel, when they go out of the school- 
room and the family into the world, that their training has 
only fitted them for a short-lived worldly existence. 

How few have been effectually taught that character, 
godhness, is man's chief attainment — to be good men and 
good women, sons and daughters of the living God, our 
highest glory. 

Most of the training of young people, their most power- 
ful educational influence, viz., that coming from the living 
example of their elders and teachers, has an earthly origin 
and earthly aim. What we, what the age, the race — espe- 
cially the young — need is a literature and educational 
influence directed and sanctified by religion. The taught 
must get not only from the doctrine, but from the living of 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 65 

their teachers, a conviction that man's best possession is 
character, moral worth ; that his most valuable treasure is 
laid up in heaven. And this must be done, not by length- 
ening our prayers, nor multiplying sermons, pubHshing tales 
of fiction in poetry or prose, by dedicating halls and tem- 
ples to the Muses, founding professorships and endowing 
seminaries, though all these may be well, but by Hving 
demonstrations, seen in the schoolroom, in the college, in 
the family, and everywhere, written all over the face of the 
Hving world, of a deep conviction that godliness is the 
great gain ! So long as education is a practical acknow- 
ledgment that riches, honors, fame, pleasures are the things 
most worthy of pursuit, so long will society remain selfish, 
worldly, heathenish ; so long shall we have war, violence, 
fraud, desolation, and bloodshed. These are the natural 
growth of what we sow. 'T is the whirlwind we shall reap 
if to the wind we sow ! There is no denying it. The edu- 
cation that is going on in the world is little better than 
practical atheism, a denial of the truth, whether we take for 
our standard a sound philosophy or the revealed word. 

Perhaps I have said enough, and more than enough, on 
this general idea, particularly with reference to the latter 
standard; but I have a conviction, a deep conviction, that 
the education we are carrying on is not that once taught 
in the school of Christ, and I am very desirous to enforce 
it upon the minds of others. 

Let us comment more particularly on some of the false 
notions and practices prevalent in regard to the training of 
children tried by either standard. All truth is of God and 
demands our reverence and obedience — truth discovered 
by reason, observation, and experience, or made known by 
direct revelation. There is a common misapprehension on 
this subject. Many attach a special sacredness and author- 



66 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

ity to the truth contained in the Scriptures, while they feel 
at liberty to treat as they please truth made known to them 
by the light of reason and experience. This is a great mis- 
take. All truth is truth, — is of God, — speaks with author- 
ity, and deserves attention. It is not for me to say how 
the great source of hghts shall make known to my mind 
any truth, whether by reason and observation, or direct rev- 
elation. It is enough for me to know that it is the truth, 
and, therefore, from God. All that science and observation 
have opened to me come with authority, with a " Thus saith 
the Lord," as if written with the finger of God, and I must 
incorporate it into the rules of living, and can by no means 
innocently disregard it. Jesus came to speak to us of the 
spiritual and unseen world, the unknown and unknowable. 
It would be presumption, arrogance, folly to expect God to 
make known to us in an extraordinary and miraculous way 
what we can know by ordinary reason, by simply using our 
natural faculties. This is not in harmony with the divine 
wisdom and economy. 

Do not understand me as claiming for all truth equal 
importance, or even equal authority : of this I predicate 
nothing. But if all is of God, all speaks with divine author- 
ity, and we may not withold our assent. The will of God 
is imprinted on his works. When we read and understand, 
we must obey. This is after the example of Him who came 
to bear witness to the truth — was himself the truth, and 
fulfilled all righteousness. And yet we, in this advanced 
age as we call it, vdth our semi-heathenish Christianity, 
think ourselves at liberty to regard or not, as suits our in- 
clination or convenience, truths discernible by reason and 
observation, and teach our children that they may do so 
too. Teach them by our habits and customs, — in a word, 
by our example. 



BECOBDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 67 

By the discoveries of the science of physiology, God has 
revealed to us the laws of true living. What business have 
we to ignore those laws, written as they are in sunbeams 
by the finger of God in our very frames and constitutions ? 
Why do we set aside God's code and follow the code of our 
own making in obedience to appetites, customs, fashions ? 
Our true interest, happiness, usefulness, the well-being of so- 
ciety, the honor and glory of the Creator — life's great end 
— demands that by obedience to the organic laws, which 
are God's laws, we maintain sound minds in sound bodies 
[mens sana in sano corpore) ; and what right have we to 
make ourselves weak, sickly, useless, miserable, while living, 
and bring ourselves to a premature grave, often in the me- 
ridian of life, by what we eat and what we drink, and the 
manner in which we are clothed, and by our personal habits, 
by our domestic arrangements, and the fashions of social 
intercourse ? Many seem to regard it a very Hght thing to 
live in habitual violation of the natural laws — the laws of 
God as much as the precepts of the gospel. Christian pro- 
fessors, to comply with some established custom, disregard 
their authority, and so as much dishonor God as though 
they trampled in the dust the holy emblems of their faith. 
Cases of invisible ignorance we must excuse, but to bring 
the customs and arrangements of life up to our knowledge 
of its organic laws would be a great advance upon the actual 
state of things. 

These errors in education (perhaps I ought to say these 
abominations) begin at a very early period of life ; what the 
child first requires is rest, quiet, or the gentlest agitation, 
with the simplest nourishment regularly administered ; but 
these it does not get, or does not get regularly. 

All those violent emotions, loud noises, sharp sounds, 
briUiant, dazzling objects addressed to his senses to attract 



68 FIBST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

attention and awaken his mental activities, are premature 
and ill judged. Little more is required than that the child 
be regularly and properly dressed, fed, and laid quietly 
away. Everything sudden, violent, startling, should be 
avoided as endangering the nervous system and perma- 
nently and fatally injuring the constitution. Again, the 
child would indulge in the very natural exercise of crying, 
as one mode of giving vent to his feelings and emotions, 
expressing his natural love of change or relieving himself 
from ennui, and certainly not always from pain, hunger, or 
anger. But the child must not cry ; it must be rocked, it 
must be carried about, it must be fed, it must be stuffed 
with sweets, and ever so much must be done to prevent 
crying. Howbeit, it never occurs to the mother that crying 
is a wholesome exercise, and that the child may get good 
by it, or that some of the things done to prevent it are 
more likely to promote it. 

Again, health, strength, growth, call for exercise ; in- 
stinct prompts the child to creep, nature's first mode of 
locomotion. Oh, but the child must not creep ; that is vul- 
gar and unfashionable. He is encouraged to walk instead, 
even while his bones are unformed, no matter if he does 
get crooked legs by it ; that is a small evil compared with 
being vulgar and out of fashion. 

So in the subsequent stages of education we tolerate, we 
institute, and practice a thousand abominations, and in our 
families and in our social intercourse, in our eating, drink- 
ing, dressing, and modes of life, which are so much rebel- 
lion against God, and so much real, if not intended, sacri- 
fice to idols. Life is a continual oblation to appetite, pride, 
vanity, and lust. We are perpetuating the iniquities of the 
fathers, we are raising up another generation to be wor- 
shipers of Baal rather than of the living God. 



RECORDS OF TEE FIRST CLASS 69 

The true end of education is to restore the image of God 
in man, to make our bodies fit temples of the Holy Ghost 
and our spirits fit inmates of God's spiritual temple. When 
we consider the sickness and infirmities flesh is subject to, 
the crimes and iniquities so prevalent in the world, both 
the result, mainly, of the education the world is receiving 
at our hands, the hands of Christians, can we longer believe 
that we are about our Heavenly Father's work ? 

" He that receiveth one such little one in my name, re- 
ceiveth me." Every parent, every teacher, that receiveth a 
new child — that hath presented to her, committed to her 
charge, a new child — either in the family or in the school- 
room, receiveth the most valuable trust that could possibly 
be committed to her, more precious than gems or rubies. 
No material interest, no earthly treasure, however much 
desired, is for a moment to be estimated with the value of 
a human soul ; and the condition, the progress, the present 
and the immortal weal of this soul hangs upon the fidehty 
of the parent or teacher who so received it. Every parent 
and every teacher receives every child that, in Providence, 
comes under her care either in the name of truth, in the 
name of Christ, to be educated for humanity, for heaven, 
for God, or she receives it in the name of error, in the name 
of a false and vain philosophy, to be educated with earthly 
aims and for a pleasure-seeking and idolatrous world — and 
this under the conviction that riches, honor, preferment, 
pleasure are the things above all others to be desired. In 
one of these two ways, under one of the influences, is every 
child received, educated. One is the way of truth and 
leads to honor, glory, and immortality. The other is the 
way of error, whose end is death. 

In whose name do we, friends, receive our children, our 
pupils ? In whose name do we educate them ? In the 



70 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

name of Christ, of truth, or in the name of error ? How 
and for what are we training them up, by precept and ex- 
ample ? In a Christian land a Christian education is every 
child's birthright. No teacher, no parent has a right to 
receive him in any other name but the name of Christ — 
to teach him any other system but the Christian system. 
Every one is bound to acknowledge Christ as Lord — to 
submit to his authority, become his disciple, to be a mem- 
ber of his church. This is not only a privilege, but an 
obligation. Christ, when on earth, estabHshed a church ; 
of this we are as much bound to become members as we 
are bound to become good men and women, " to live right- 
eously, soberly, and godly, to serve God and keep his com- 
mandments," as much bound as we are to fit ourselves 
for heaven. Indeed, it is not a matter submitted for our 
option. It is laid upon us as a command. The great 
Head of the church knew the discipline which we needed 
to fit us for himself, and if the church had not been a 
necessary instrumentality he would not have appointed it. 
There is a mighty mistake prevailing in regard to this mat- 
ter. In this church and by this church and for this church 
every child has a right to be trained. 

Say, parent ; say, teacher ; say, Christian professor, is 
the education you are giving after this sort ? 

But what is this church? Of whom does it consist? 
Who are its legitimate members ? I say, then, by and on 
the authority of the New Testament, it is the body of per- 
sons who believe in Jesus Christ the Son of God and 
Saviour of men, crucified and risen, and so believe in Him 
as to be personally conscious of a supreme desire to live 
his spiritual Hfe, resemble Him, and be his true, living, 
redeemed disciples. Baptism and the Lord's supper are 
the visible signs and tokens of becoming and remaining 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 71 

members of this church. So says the New Testament, so 
says church history. Of this body we should be members, 
so should our children. Many regard this matter with 
much unconcern and indifference, but Christ hath not so 
treated it. We are to be his disciples, members of his 
church on earth, as we would be members of the church 
of the first born whose names are written in heaven. A 
necessity is laid upon us thus to acknowledge Christ. 

And this leads me to speak of another practical error in 
the Christian world, even among those Christian professors 
who, in most respects, are consistent and exact. I allude 
to the practice so common in our churches of excluding 
children from its membership. The promise is " to you 
and your children ! " And children of believing parents, 
once introduced into the church and consecrated to God by 
baptism, should be educated in it and by it, and can no 
more be excluded from it forever. So teach the apostles, 
so has the church taught from her earHest history, and 
such is the practice of some of our most numerous and 
consistent denominations, as the Quakers, Episcopalians, 
and Komanists. If children were educated in this ideal, 
enforced by the example and practice of parents, they 
would not manifest such indifference, not to say opposition, 
to church ordinances as they now do, nor would the ranks 
of young communicants be so thin as they now are. Chil- 
dren should be taught nothing else, should hear nothing 
else, should know nothing else, than that they are church 
members, and as such are to walk in all its commandments 
and ordinances. Children educated in this belief and under 
this ideal would be found neither unfit nor unwilling to 
take upon themselves church vows and relations. A proof 
of this we see in the example of Episcopalians. We should 
then have a fuller church, more orderly families, and better 



72 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

communities. I will only add, under this head, that parents 
should never press this matter to compulsion, should never 
carry it beyond affectionate, earnest, solemn advice. It 
would be losing sight of one great principle or fact in edu- 
cation; viz., that children have rights; and it must be 
remembered — yea, there can hardly be a worse mistake in 
parental discipline than to forget, as parents often do — that 
as parents have authority so children have rights. Frequent 
conflict between children and parents is sure to be followed 
with consequences most disastrous. In all matters indif- 
ferent, surely, or where pro and con are merely balanced, 
let children have their way. Better stop far short of the 
true limits of parental authority than go a hair's breadth 
beyond it. This last there is danger of parents doing in 
their zeal to maintain their authority. 

There are other practices in education common with 
teachers and parents reputed wise and professedly Christian, 
which, though they directly contravene no principle in phi- 
losophy or precept of religion, will hardly receive the sanc- 
tion of a sound discretion. We have instances of this in 
the course which many parents take in regard to the selec- 
tion of books for their children's reading, in forming matri- 
monial connections, and in choosing a profession for life. 
On each of these I will offer a few remarks. 

First, in regard to the choice of books; and here I have 
one general remark to make, which will apply to many other 
things as well as the one under consideration. It is this : 
that if the parent or teacher himself be right, truly and 
thoroughly right, it will have a mighty influence in forming 
the tastes and in forming the judgment of the child. 

To exclude all books of immoral tendency is the right 
and duty of the parent, but to say whether the reading shall 
be more of one kind than another — i. e., whether it shall 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 73 

consist more of prose or of poetry, more of history or bio- 
graphy or essay, — this, it seems to me, is the prerogative 
of the child. The contrary would involve an invasion of 
his rights. But when the question arises in regard to 
works of fiction and imagination, such as Scott and Dick- 
ens, Hawthorne and a large class of minor authors of a like 
kind (few of which I have read), to which there exists no 
objection from the moral spirit they breathe, and by which 
our young folks seem so much fascinated, a decision be- 
comes very difficult. This much, however, seems to me : 
when a child is given so much to novel reading as to read 
nothing else, or to weaken and unsettle his mind or pervert 
his taste, it is time for the parent to interfere, and the best 
way to cure the evil is to debar the child from books en- 
tirely for a season, or to require him, for every volume of 
fiction, to read one of equal size of history or biography or 
sober essay. 

Second, in regard to matrimonial alliances. I know of no 
human relation more important or worse managed, none in 
the formation of which there are grosser violations of truth, 
whether in high or low life, whether on the part of parents 
or children. 

" A great match," in everybody's mouth, means one that 
promises well for worldly thrift, wealth, distinction, place, 
power. In view of these things we see the truths of phy- 
siology and religion, the sober lesson of experience and 
observation, and every consideration touching the proper 
intent of the institution, overlooked and foregone. Chris- 
tian professors will readily confess (nothing is more com- 
mon) that these things do not constitute happiness, — nay, 
are often a hindrance to it, — yet in forming connections 
for their children aim at nothing so much. Can anything 
be more inconsistent or heathenish? It is because mar- 



74 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

riage connections are thus consummated that family peace 
is so often broken, home robbed of its sweetest joys, and its 
most sacred relations desecrated. But what is the parent 
to do ? I answer, in regard to marriages forming or to be 
formed on such principles and with such aims, he should 
do nothing. And in any case he can hardly do more than 
counsel, remonstrate, and advise ; anything like constraint, 
compulsion, or persecution, direct or indirect, as debarring 
from the parental roof or threatening disinheritance, is very 
questionable policy. The whole connection is so much a 
personal matter that it seems as though it should be left 
mainly to the voluntary choice of the child. 

Third, the last topic upon which I am to remark is the 
choice of a profession for life. Here the same improper 
motives are allowed to influence our decision, to some ex- 
tent, as prevail in forming the marriage connection. But 
in choosing one of the many callings or professions which 
it is lawful to pursue, the question above all others to be 
asked, considered, and answered by the parent and by the 
child is, what is the child made for? For what is he by his 
Creator fitted ? To what is he inclined ? And not what is 
most fashionable or honorable or dignified or gainful even, 
but what is he made for ? Here you have the indication of 
Providence, the decision of God. To one God says I made 
you for this ; to another, I made you for that. He tells 
one man to be a farmer, another a mechanic, a third a mer- 
chant. One man is made for the forum : he has causality 
and language ; another for the desk : he has causaHty, com- 
parison, language, with a large infusion of marvelousness 
and reverence ; while a third is endowed with a large share 
of histrionic or dramatic power. Where did he get it ? 
He did not make it himself; evidently it came from the 
same source whence the others derived theirs, the original 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 75 

source of all our faculties — God. He is made for the 
stage. If God formed a Raphael for a painter, a Michael 
Angelo for a sculptor, a Shakespeare and a Milton for a 
poet, did he not mean that a Garrick, Siddons, Mowatt, 
Kemble, should be actors ? For each of these and a mul- 
titude of others their calling was chosen before they were 
born. Let every one follow nature's lead and further her 
intents. Where nature has not thus clearly pointed out the 
way, other considerations may come in to influence the 
choice. And well is it when considerations affecting charac- 
ter and usefulness lead in the choice, rather than chances 
and probabilities of gain. 

It may surprise some of you to hear your old teacher 
advocating the stage and the drama, or even admitting 
its propriety, after what I have said on Christian training. 
But there is no inconsistency ; I do not advocate or exclude 
its abuses and abominations. The drama and the stage 
grow out of our natural gifts, and powers and everything 
that is of God is good. If the Creator has endowed some 
with histrionic gifts and powers, and all of us in a degree 
with imitation and mirthfulness, this is evidence enough for 
me to believe that he meant there should be a stage and 
acting. I say I do not defend its abuses nor make it 
accountable for them. If there have been bad actors, so 
there have been bad lawyers and ministers. The same way 
that the objector proves that it was meant there should 
be sculptors, painters, poets, farmers, and ministers, I prove 
it was intended there should be actors. There may be good 
people in all professions and callings, and as good in one 
as in another — as good sailors, farmers, chimney-sweeps as 
lawyers and ministers. 

I know a family of four daughters, all talented, all pos- 
sessing a taste for the fine arts. Who gave them these 



76 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

abilities ? God. Ought they to exercise their various and 
special gifts? Undoubtedly, you say. One has a talent 
for painting ; what should she be ? A painter. Another a 
talent for sculpture ; what shall she be ? Why, a sculptor, 
to be sure. The third has great musical powers. All say 
what the Creator has said before them, a musician. Very 
well. Now the fourth happens to be endowed with great 
histrionic power. Her Creator evidently made her for the 
drama and the stage. Ought she not to be an actress? 
So says reason, consistency ; so says her Creator. But her 
well-meaning yet injudicious friends think otherwise, say 
No, and so she stays at home, sits in the corner, and darns 
stockings. 

I did intend to say something of the general principles 
of training children and the motives to be presented to 
influence them. But I have already extended these remarks 
too far. Under this head a word must suffice. 

In regard to general principles. If you begin season- 
ably ; i. e., when life begins (the first decade thereof being 
the most important for education), — if you begin season- 
ably, with a strong desire to do right, with good common- 
sense, with a heart full of love, with well-developed firm- 
ness, with these elements and principles you can hardly go 
wrong. They are better than volumes of rules, formulas, 
and precepts. 

As a general thing, I would not reason much with chil- 
dren, especially young children. Early habituate them to 
submit to authority ; it is wiser, safer, and happier for the 
child. Deliberate, but decide ; decide promptly. 

Few things are worse for children than to be found fre- 
quently hesitating and unsettled; better even sometimes 
decide wrong. Again I say be firm, mild, kind, uniform, 
but Jirm, If the spirit that habitually rules the parent or 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 11 

teacher be right, his will or desire manifested in any manner 
will be to the child the strongest authority. 

In regard to motives, let children see that what you 
teach and what you require is true and right, that you be- 
lieve it to be such ; and that this is reason enough that it 
should be learned, that it should be done. That it is use- 
ful, that it is expedient, fashionable, gainful ; if urged as 
motives at all, let them come in only as secondary consider- 
ations. These are the motives that have long led, and now 
lead, in the work of education ; many of them are essen- 
tially heathenish, and they have made society and the world 
what they are. And be assured that so long as parents and 
teachers carry on the work of education under the lead of 
such principles, so long will they train up for children such 
deformities as meet our eyes at home and everywhere. 

On rewards and punishments I add one remark. Of 
whatever form they be, imitate the divine administration ; 
of whatever form they be, let children see that in your 
discipline rewards and punishments are the natural conse- 
quence of their own actions. Experience and observation 
have led me to doubt very much the wisdom and propriety 
of rewards and punishments merely arbitrary. Hiring chil- 
dren to learn, to be good, or to do anything, is worse than 
error, — is abomination. The whole system of medals and 
premiums as a means of education, at home or in the school- 
room, sanctioned as it is by authorities, is at best a refined 
abomination. I have said nothing new. 



NINTH MEETING 

On Wednesday, September 15, 1858, our Class held its 
Ninth Annual Meeting at the Marlboro Hotel, five mem- 
bers being present. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Mrs. Harriet Peirce West Newton. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon Cambridgeport. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mr. and Mrs. David Loring .... Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Thompson . . Woburn. 

Mr. Chauncey W. Chamberlain, a guest West Cambridge. 

In consequence of some misunderstanding on the part of 
the committee, two of our most reliable members, Mrs. Lam- 
son and Mrs. Drummond, were absent, the former being in 
Philadelphia, the latter in New York. It was our hope and 
intention so to plan the meeting as to secure the presence 
of one, — finding it impossible for both to be in Boston at 
the same time, — and our failure was the occasion of sincere 
regret. 

Mrs. Loring took charge of arrangements at the Marl- 
boro, which were, as usual, most satisfactory ; and I think 
none present could fail to recognize and be grateful for the 
grace and energy and social power with which Mrs. Loring 
enUvened a day which promised to be inauspicious. Al- 
though our number was so small, the time passed pleasantly 
and cheerfully, if not as joyfully as in former years ; and 
the tone of the letters and messages received from our 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 79 

absent ones proved no abatement of interest or faith in the 
continuance of our meetings. Instead of an address from 
one of our number, Mrs. Loring read a poem on Woman's 
Mission, which she had very much admired at its delivery 
by a young lady at the recent Normal School Convention 
at Framingham, and which proved very entertaining and 
acceptable to our company. 

During the forenoon Miss Harris read the following re- 
marks and resolutions : — 

" For seventeen years death had not broken our ranks. 
The voices of some of our loved ones have not always min- 
gled with our tones of greeting, but we knew that they fell 
clear and pleasant on other kindred hearts, and that this 
occasion, with all its freighted memories, was their thought 
and theme, as it was ours. We have received their assur- 
ances and their regrets, their hopes of a future meeting 
with us, and we have felt that the propitious hour would 
yet arrive. 

" We have been so long an unbroken company that we 
have never painfully realized how one after another must 
disappear into the ' Silent Land,' and their memories alone 
come up to greet us. But to-day it is otherwise. A be- 
loved and cherished sister — as faithful in her heart, we 
believe, to her relations with us as she was to all others — 
sends us no word of greeting, no sign of regret, no hope- 
ful expression concerning a more favorable future. We 
know that her voice greets no human ear to-day ; and if 
her thoughts are of us, they are the pure and sanctified 
thoughts which angels breathe ; and we, thinking of her, 
are Hfted into the holier atmosphere of her home among 
the ' eternal hills.' 

" Many of us recall her only as she was in her girlhood, 
loving and lovely ; but a few of us have felt the influence 



80 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

of her maturer graces, have confessed the charm of voice 
and manner that bespoke the beautifully calm and earnest 
soul, ' unresting — unhasting.' 

" As I last saw her in the sanctuary of her own happy 
home, a fair and graceful type of true womanhood, it 
seemed to me that the radiant light of that spiritual home 
she was so soon to enter already haloed and blessed her." 

The following were the resolutions : — 

'' Resolved, That by the death of our beloved classmate, 
Eliza Pennell Blake, our Class is bereaved of one of its 
brightest ornaments. 

" Resolved, That as we recall her gentle presence and 
lovingly remember the virtues and graces that made her 
so dear to all who knew her, confiding in the love of the 
Father who called her, we will accept the heavenly for the 
earthly mission in the spirit of her own pure life. 

" Resolved, That as we are thus reminded how frail and 
uncertain are these mortal ties, we will cement more firmly 
those spiritual bonds that, surviving the perils of time, shall 
gladden the immortal life beyond. 

" Resolved, That we remember to-day with pecuhar ten- 
derness and interest our bereaved classmate, Rebecca Pen- 
nell Dean, whose life was so intimately and beautifully 
linked with our departed sister's. 

" Resolved, That we tender our earnest and heartfelt 
sympathies to the husband and son, trusting in the love of 
the great Consoler, who can alone sustain them in such a 
bereavement. 

'^ Resolved, That we deeply deplore the absence from 
our meeting to-day of our revered friend and teacher. 
Father Peirce. 

" Resolved, That while we gratefully recall his benign 
and cheerful presence at our social gatherings, we also re- 
call his faithful, vigorous labors for our highest welfare. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 81 

" Resolved, That henceforth, if he meet not with us, a 
large place will be vacant, a bright and cheering light be 
withdrawn, and we shall feel the subduing influence of a 
vital and irreparable loss. 

" Resolved, That we tender to him our heartfelt desire 
that his days of sickness may be as serene and trusting and 
hopeful as those of health have been faithful, true, and 
earnest. 

" Resolved, That while we mourn the absence of a friend 
and teacher, the community is deprived of one who has 
advocated the cause of sound intellectual learning, pure 
morality, and reHgious culture with noble zeal and fidelity, 
and illustrated what he advocated by a life worthy and 
approved. 

"Resolved, That we will cherish the memory of his 
words and of his works, of what he was to us as teacher, 
friend, and counselor in our earlier days, of what he has 
since been to us in the freer intercourse of our maturer 
sympathies." 



IN MEMOKIAM: MRS. MARY HALL LORING 

The Boston newspapers of September 13, 1859, con- 
tained among the deaths the following : " September 12, 
Mrs. Mary Hall Stodder, wife of David Loring, 36. Fu- 
neral services on Thursday, 15th, at eleven o'clock a. m., 
at 63 Shawmut Avenue. The members of the first Class 
of the Lexington Normal School are invited to attend." 

Such was not the summons we were hopefully anticipat- 
ing from the favorite of our band. The autumn had come, 
and we were daily awaiting her call for another of those 
harvest days of rejoicing, in which we could pour into each 
others' hearts the fruition of the past year. But instead, 
there came this voiceless beckoning of our darling class- 
mate from the silent chamber of death. Widely severed 
by distance as we were, but few of us could obey this sud- 
den bidding to the house of mourning. Of our number 
only Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Blodgett, Mrs. Lamson, Miss Rogers, 
and Miss Ireson, with our dear elder friend, Mrs. Peirce, 
were able to respond by their presence in the darkened 
home of our sister, hitherto illumined for us always by her 
radiant smile of welcome. In just one year from our last 
happy reunion, made happy in large measure by her amia- 
ble, careful superintendence and winning sociability, we 
gathered around her spirit-deserted form to weep with the 
three little loving boys left motherless in the world, with 
the devoted brothers made sisterless, with the fond husband 
unutterably desolated. 

From the lips of three pastors whom she loved, and each 
of whom in turn had numbered our departed Mary among 



RECORDS OF TEE FIRST CLASS 83 

the precious lambs of his flock — Rev. Messrs. Pierpont, 
Waterston, and Hale — came words of prayer and consola- 
tion for the many smitten hearts assembled there, and then 
the mortal part of our immortal friend was borne to its last 
long repose beside kindred dust, away from the city's tumult 
and glare, amid the silent hills with the umbrageous forest 
crowned. So most mournfully passed our tenth Class re- 
union ; mournfully, but not unprofitably we trust ; may it 
be sanctified to us for great good. Thou, dear Mary, in 
thy bright abode above, wilt lift our thoughts heavenward 
to thee and to our God. 



TENTH MEETING 

An informal meetiDg of such members of our Class as 
were in the immediate neighborhood and could assemble at 
very brief notice was held at Mr. and Mrs. Lamson's, Bos- 
ton, Wednesday p. m., November 16, 1859. 



NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 



Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lamson 

Helen Lamson . . 

Gardner S. Lamson 

Kate G. Lamson 
Miss Hannah M. Damon 
Mrs. Mary Ann Davis . 

Florence W. Davis 
Miss Louisa E. Harris . 
Miss Adeline M. Ireson 
Mr. David Loring . . 



Boston. 

Boston. 

Boston. 

Boston. 

Cambridgeport. 

Lexington. 

Lexington. 

Roxbury. 

Cambridge. 

Boston. 

New York. 



Mrs. Sarah W. Drummond 

Miss Catherine P. Wyman, a guest . Boxbury. 

The afternoon was spent in conversation simply, and 
after partaking of a bountiful repast prepared by our host 
and hostess, we separated in the hope that Providence 
might permit us to assemble in larger number during the 
coming year. 

Father Peirce [born August 15, 1790] died April 5, 
1860, the first Principal of the first State Normal School 
in America. 



ELEVENTH MEETING 



The Eleventh Annual Meeting of our Class was held at 
the Lexington House, Wednesday, August 8, 1860, when 
twelve members were present. 



NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 



Miss Hannah M. Damon 

Mrs. Mary Ann Davis . 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton . 

Miss Louisa E. Harris . 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson 

Mr. and Mrs. Jeduthan Richardson . 

Thomas F. Richardson 

Almon L. Richardson . 
Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lamson 

Helen Lamson . . 

Gardner S. Lamson 

Kate G. Lamson 
Mrs. Maria L. Thompson 

Nellie S. Thompson 
Mrs. Lydia A. Adams . 
Mrs. James F. Drummond 

J. Wyman Drummond 

Catherine W. Drummond 
Miss Eliza Ann Rogers . . . 
Mrs. Hannah P. Blodgett . . 

Addie M. Blodgett . . 



West Cambridge. 

Lexington. 

Halifax. 

Somerville. 

Cambridge. 

Woburn. 

Woburn. 

Woburn. 

Boston. 

Boston. 

Boston. 

Boston. 

Woburn. 

Woburn. 

Fall River. 

New York. 

New York. 

New York. 

Billerica. 

West Amesbury. 

West Amesbury. 



As the meeting was called at a short notice (two of our 
number acting as an informal committee), it was feared it 
might prove a failure. The day was fine and our hearts 
were cheered, on arriving at the cars, to welcome one and 



86 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

another of our dear classmates. A cheerful, li^ppy greet- 
ing was given and received by each familiar face ; but as 
we looked around upon the smiHng group, we were sad- 
dened when we thought of one dear face we should not 
see, one kindly voice that would not welcome us. She who 
had been the hght and joy of our meeting, whose face ever 
beamed with smiles of love and welcome — she, our dear 
Mary Loring, was no longer one of our happy number. 

After an interchange of kindly sympathies and pleasant 
reminiscences, we listened to the reading of letters from our 
absent classmates, expressing regrets that they could not 
be with us, and a continued interest in our Class meetings ; 
allusions were made to the great loss we have sustained in 
the death of our honored Father Peirce, and many were the 
words of sympathy and sorrow for the bereaved husband 
and motherless children of our dear departed Mary Loring. 
Many kind thoughts for our dear Mrs. Peirce. 

The letters were sent to her that she may know that her 
sorrow is also ours. 

After reading the letters from absent classmates. Miss 
Rogers begged leave to read a private letter she had lately 
received from Mrs. Peirce, in answer to one of sympathy 
from herself. It was a sad yet grateful review of her hus- 
band's last sickness, to the closing scenes of his life. It 
was the deathbed of one who had lived "to the Truth." To 
such an one death could not be clothed with terror, but 
rather it was but laying by the frail mortal for a glorious 
immortahty. Let us follow his example, " Live to the 
Truth," that the truth may make us free indeed. 

Mrs. Peirce alluded to a monument she was intending to 
erect to the memory of her husband, and it was voted by 
the Class to see what could be done by Normalty towards 
defraying the expense of a monument. Each member pre- 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 87 

sent subscribed and pledged herself to use every means in 
her power to induce others who were pupils of the late 
Father Peirce to add their offering to the cause. In the 
meanwhile Mrs. Peirce was to be informed of the matter, 
and requested to defer any action until she should hear 
further from us. 

At one o'clock we sat down to a dinner, at which Mr. Lam- 
son presided. During the repast there was the usual inter- 
change of thought, enlivened by salHes of wit and humor. 
To give a little variety to the entertainment, Miss Harris, 
in behalf of her friends, presented three of the number 
— Mrs. Adams, Mrs. Blodgett, and Mrs. Morton — with 
pitchers, as a token of their appreciation of the great effort 
these ladies have made to be present on this occasion. As 
the recipients were taken by surprise, the scene was a comi- 
cal one. This, of course, added to the mirth of the hour. 

After dinner we adjourned to the drawing-room to listen 
to an address prepared for the occasion by Mrs. Lamson, 
after which a few resolutions were adopted and our meeting 
closed. 

At half-past four most of us separated to go to our re- 
spective homes, gratified and delighted with the events of 
the day. 

ADDRESS BY MRS. LAMSON. 

My dear Classmates, — It has been suggested that, 
meeting as we do to-day after a lapse of two years, in which 
events of so sad a nature in our history as a class have 
transpired, that it is fitting that some record of death's 
dealings be made; and equally fitting, it seems to me, that, 
as this year we celebrate our Twentieth Class Day, we pause 
on the threshold ere we enter another cycle, and while we 
mourn together over the providences of the past, which, in 
our short-sightedness we would have averted, we may also 



88 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

rejoice in the great goodness and mercy which have watched 
over us so long, and in the unusual exemption from the 
severer trials of life which we have enjoyed. 

On that day when leaving our Alma Mater — our Almus 
Pater we would then have said, for it was our dear father 
whom we left, and that institution, of which we were the 
beginning, had not earned for itself such laurels that we 
might appropriate then the name of Alma Mater, — on 
that day could we have been told what twenty years would 
reveal — that only three of our number would be called away 
from earth ; that not one would be left to wander from the 
paths of virtue or do aught which should fill our hearts 
with sadness ; that, on the contrary, a useful life would be 
the lot of so many — yes, more, that eminence would be 
attained by not a few in the path of our professions ; that 
none should be made to taste the bitterness of poverty; 
and above all, that through all these years our paths should 
be cheered by the unfailing friendship and sympathy of 
each other, — should we not have said it was more than we 
could ask or even hope for ? But has not all this taken 
place ? Its parallel may not be found in the records of any 
class of our sister graduates, and perhaps in no other edu- 
cational institution. 

Indeed, we have been blessed of Providence, and it surely 
becomes us to utter to-day the voice of thanksgiving, even 
if our hearts are saddened by recent bereavements. 

As we bade adieu to our teacher, we remember that, to 
our young eyes, he looked like an old man, and twenty 
years would be a long time for his life to be spared to us ; 
but year after year he has come to our annual gathering, 
and by his never-failing love for us has bound us more and 
more to him. Henceforth we are to wander as sheep with- 
out a shepherd. We miss his low and earnest tone of wel- 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 89 

come here to-day, and that other voice which used to join 
his in loving greeting. Long have they trodden life's jour- 
ney together. May her path, so lonely now, be cheered with 
the sweet remembrances of the past, and the hope of a 
reunion where there are no more partings. 

With united hearts, for I feel I am speaking what you 
each wish to utter, would we express to her our sympathies ; 
not in formal resolutions, for that is the world's way when 
it speaks and often feels not, but with silent tears which 
are the heart's utterance. 

Of our beloved teacher it is our privilege to speak, not 
as if the world was to hear, but to bear our testimony that 
the pages of our Record Book may show how we loved and 
valued him. In recurring to our school year, my first 
thought is always how little we then realized our position, 
how little we appreciated his untiring energy, perseverance, 
and zeal, against what discouragements he was struggling, 
and with what slight hope of success. As he looked for- 
ward to the decision of that question which to his far-seeing 
eye was so momentous, " Shall there be Normal Schools ? " 
his patience must have been severely tried that we were at 
times so unteachable. 

But to appreciate the labors and trials of the teacher we 
must first be teachers ourselves, and from this standpoint 
we can all of us look back and admire his ability, his thor- 
oughness, his tact at training, not the intellect only, but 
the whole man. Much has been said in praise of Father 
Peirce, but the half has not been told nor can be ; it is felt 
by all who have come under his influence. 

To those who have been teaching, how invaluable have 
his lessons been ; and even in these days, when the subject 
of education is so much studied, his lectures, as we read 
them from our journals, are filled with thoughts and sugges- 



90 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN A3IERICA 

tions worthy of repetition at the next Teachers' Associa- 
tion. 

Not in teaching only, but in all the walks of life, are we 
indebted to him. In our labors for our children how much 
has he assisted us ! He taught us how to teach others. 
The schools of our country, as we scholars reason, are to be 
the gainers ; but as mothers we look with a less confined 
vision. We hoped and expected as teachers to do much 
good in the mental and moral culture of our scholars, and 
many are the testimonials that our hopes and expectations 
were not in vain ; and when we left the school for the nur- 
sery it was with the feeling that our Normal work was done 
and we were to enter a new field. Has it proved so ? You, 
my sisters who are mothers, can answer. Does not the old 
motto, the first adopted as the school badge, " Live to the 
Truth," still ring in your ears and find its daily appHca- 
tion ? Do not the many precepts inculcating patience and 
perseverance find even more scope for use than in the 
schoolroom ? Do not the habits of order and system which 
he daily illustrated serve you as usefully now as ever ? 

As he taught us to be good teachers and mothers, so he 
prepared us to be good citizens. We live at a time when 
we shall probably be called upon to exert a wider influence 
than we have heretofore, and doubtless whatever our posi- 
tion these same truths, which have been so invaluable to us 
in the past, will be our guide in the future. 

In speaking thus of the happy results of our Normal 
training, I feel I have bestowed the highest encomiums on 
these labors. At what higher end can we aim than that 
our influence on all around us should be of an elevating 
and improving character ? And upon what multitudes has 
he set his stamp. And shall we mourn that we can see 
him no more in the flesh ? No, let us rather rejoice that 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 91 

_i 

when the casket was worn out the spirit was released, and 
that he was spared the lingering sickness which he antici- 
pated, and the long period of uselessness to himself and the 
world which he so much dreaded. 

As I looked upon that face which had so often smiled 
upon us, I could only say " that life is long which answers 
life's great end," and feel that we were to be thankful for 
one more example of a man who had Hved his threescore 
and ten years upon the earth and passed unsullied to his 
rest. 

Of our number three meet no more with us here. One, 
an invahd in her school days, died soon after graduating. 
Seventeen years rolled by and left our number the same, 
and then the summons came to another — a wife, a mother, 
and sister. A far-off home had been hers, and we saw her 
rarely after we parted at Lexington, but we loved her still 
and grieved that we should see her here no more. 

Scarce a year had passed since the third was called from 
us. Why must she go ? our unwilling hearts would say. 
Death, must thou take our best-loved, our dearest trea- 
sure ? We cannot spare her — husband and children will 
be desolate ; but in vain our prayers. " God moves in a 
mysterious way ; " " what is hidden from us now shall be 
revealed hereafter ; " for wise and good purposes He cor- 
recteth us, and may we bow with submission to this our 
heaviest stroke. I feel that my pen is entirely inadequate 
to express your feelings, my dear sisters; for it fails to 
utter my own. Living for many years so near to her, she 
had become very dear to me — how dear I did not know 
until I felt the blank which she had left. Hers was a 
nature which bound her strongly to her friends, and her 
sparkling vivacity made her the loved and admired com- 
panion of many. Joined to a cultivated mind, she had a 



92 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

depth of feeling which ever overflowed in smiles and tears, 
and made us feel that she was a true sympathizer — a true 
woman, may I not say ? 

The Class and its meetings were ever dear to her heart, 
and you who were present at the last bear testimony to her 
untiring exertions that all should be happy. Could she 
speak to us to-day she would say, " Dry your tears, mourn 
not for me," so earnestly has she ever desired that we should 
have a meeting to which we could recur with pleasure for 
the year. Let us follow her example and make greater 
exertions to continue these gatherings, that as our numbers 
lessen our hearts may be more closely bound together. 

To husband and children so sadly bereaved would we ten- 
der our sympathies. The hand that smites can heal, and we 
feel how powerless are our words to touch his deep grief. 
For the children thus early motherless we are pledged by 
the many expressions of their mother that our interest for 
each other would insure its continuance for our children, 
and earnestly shall we watch and pray that these dear chil- 
dren may be kept from the evil in the world and grow up 
to honor their mother. 

Is there one who would say, after this review, what will 
twenty years recall ? 

Let us not strive to lift the veil that a kind Heavenly 
Father has drawn between us and our future. We cannot 
question that wisdom which conceals it. Enough for us 
that " As our day so shall our strength be," and if we fol- 
low the indication of Providence and our motto, " Live to 
the Truth," we shall be led safely through the prosperities 
and adversities of life, whether many or few may be the 
days allotted to us here. 

At the annual meeting of the American Institute of In- 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 93 

struction held in Boston^ August, 1860, Eev. Mr. Brooks 
brought to the attention of the Institute the death of Fa- 
ther Peirce. He said his name and that of Normal Schools 
were synonymous. He was not dead, but lived in the 
thoughts that he had communicated to others and which 
he hoped would live to circumnavigate the globe. The 
speaker gave a brief account of his own and Mr. Peirce' s 
labors in behalf of Normal Schools, until they were finally 
successful through the aid of Daniel Webster and John 
Quincy Adams. In conclusion he offered the following 
resolution : — 

" Resolved, That as members of the American Institute 
of Instruction, we remember with gratitude the solid and 
lasting services rendered to education by our late associate. 
Rev. Cyrus Peirce, the first teacher of the first Normal 
School established by law on this western continent. We 
bear our cheerful testimony not only to his early and full 
appreciation of the phrase, as is the teacher so is the school, 
but also to that sober good sense, that transparent sincerity, 
that indomitable perseverance by which the Normal School 
has become a fixed institution of our country. 

"Resolved, That while we are grateful for his public 
labors and his eminent success, we mourn that we shall see 
his face no more ; yet we would be comforted in recalling 
his paternal gentleness and manly courage, his worldly 
wisdom and his apostolic faith ; and would conclude with 
hoping that the maxim of his heart, ^ Live to the Truth,' 
may become the sacred motto of every school. All men 
possess strength in early life, but in him were united the 
warmth of youth with the wisdom of age ; in this he was 
one of the noblest examples that have been given to man. 
He saw the beginning and the end of the educational strug- 
gle so far, and was always true to his duty." 



TWELFTH MEETING 

On Wednesday, October 1, 1862, our Class held its 
Twelfth Meeting at the Lexington House, Lexington, eight 
members being present. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Boston. 

Helen Lamson Boston, 

Gardner S. Lamson .... Boston. 

Kate G. Lamson Boston. 

Mrs. Lydia A. Adams FaU River. 

Edward S. Adams Fall River. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton Halifax. 

Mrs. Maria L. Thompson .... Woburn. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon .... West CambridgCo 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Boston, 

Miss Eliza Ann Rogers Billerica. 

Mrs. Susan E. B. Channing . . . Boston. 

Eva Channing Boston. 

Guests : — 

Rev. Caleb Stetson Lexington, 

Mr. Calvin Rogers Billerica. 

While awaiting the assembling of the Httle group, two 
of the first arrivals made a loving pilgrimage to the old 
school building, now untenanted, and to the Monument 
and Common near by, and in the course of the walk made 
the happy discovery that Rev. Caleb Stetson, whom we all 
remembered as so frequent and interested a visitor to the 
school during our year, now resides in Lexington. On 
their return with this intelligence, it was unanimously voted 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 95 

to invite him to dine with us ; and Mrs. Lamson, the Presi- 
dent of the day, immediately dispatched a note of invita- 
tion, to which a favorable answer was received. 

After an interval of conversation and friendly greeting, 
Mrs. Lamson called our attention to the business of the 
day. The records of the last meeting were read, and also 
letters from Mrs. Peirce, Mrs. Usher, of Onalaska, Wis., and 
Mrs. Almira Johnson. We had also verbal messages from 
some of our other absent ones, regretting their inability to 
be present with us. Mrs. Lamson, as Treasurer of the 
Monument Fund, made the subjoined report. 

Owing to some misunderstanding, no address had been 
prepared for this occasion, and Miss Damon was requested 
to have one ready for our next meeting. 

At one o'clock we sat down to dinner, at which Mr. Stet- 
son presided. There was a pecuhar fitness in his occupying 
the seat at the head of our table, as he was an early and 
warm friend of Normal Schools when they were strug- 
gling for a foothold in Massachusetts, and, moreover, was 
a sympathizing and appreciative friend of Father Peirce. 
His presence added much to our enjoyment, and his fa- 
therly relation to the group was most sweetly recognized 
by the youngest at table, who innocently addressed him as 
" grandpa." 

From the dinner-table we adjourned to the parlor, where 
the brief remainder of the time passed in social intercourse. 
Miss Damon was requested to write to Mrs. Peirce an ac- 
count of our pleasant gathering, and Mrs. Lamson and Miss 
Ireson were appointed a Committee of Arrangements for 
the next meeting. 

The Treasurer of the Monument Fund reports that she 
has received from 114 pupils the sum of $123.62. 



96 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

Cost of monument $115.00 

Expense of postage 1.00 

Leavinor a balance on hand 7.62 

which sum was forwarded to Mrs. Peirce to defray the ex- 
pense of transportation to Nantucket. 

The " Weekly Mirror/' of Nantucket, Saturday, Decem- 
ber 22, 1860, says : — 

"father peirce. 

" To indicate their grateful consciousness of the merits 
of their departed teacher, the Normal pupils of Rev. Cyrus 
Peirce have erected at his grave in this place an appro- 
priate monument to his memory. It consists of a Grecian 
Cross of white Italian marble on a plinth of the same, the 
whole based on a block of gray granite. On the front, 
which is the eastern side of the plinth, stands in relief the 
name Cyrus Peirce. Curving around the centre of the cross 
are the words, also in relief, ' Live to the Truth.' On the 
reverse or western side of the plinth are these words : 
' Erected by his Normal pupils.' On the northern end of 
the phnth are the words, ' Born Aug. 15th, 1790. Died 
April 5th, I860.' 

" The erection of the monument is creditable to the Nor- 
mals ; its chaste materials and style to their taste. His 
pupils are the best monuments of a teacher ; but the marble 
adds a valuable assurance of fidelity to duty and devotion 
to the cause of symmetrical and therefore true mental cul- 
ture." 



THIRTEENTH MEETING 

August 13, 1863, our Annual Class Meeting was held 
at the Lexington House, Lexington, nine members being 
present. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Mrs. L. H. Morton Halifax. 

Mrs. M. S. Lamson Boston. 

Mrs. S. W. Drummond New York. 

Wyman Drummond .... New York. 

Kate Drummond New York. 

Louise Drummond .... New York. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jeduthan Richardson . Woburn. 

Mrs. Maria Thompson Woburn. 

Jenny Lind Thompson . . . Woburn. 

Miss Hannah Damon West Cambridge. 

Miss Adeline Ireson Cambridge. 

Miss Louisa Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Eliza A. Rogers Billerica. 

Guests : — 

Mrs. Burnham Chicago. 

Miss Ella Morton. 

After the usual interchange of affectionate and kindly 
greeting, and some time spent in social intercourse, the 
meeting was called to order and letters were read from our 
dear and honored Mrs. Peirce and from several of our ab- 
sent classmates, and verbal reports were given of others ; 
so that we received intelligence from almost every one. 

It was decided to hold our next meeting in Boston, on 
the Wednesday preceding the first Monday in September ; 
and it was thought that this day would be the best for our 



98 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

future meetings, unless some circumstances should make a 
change for the time desirable. 

At the usual hour we separated for our several homes, 
feeling that our reunion had been a day of rest and refresh- 
ment on the path of life, and deeply grateful to that Provi- 
dence which had spared us from severe affliction during the 
past year. 



FOURTEENTH MEETING AND QUARTER CENTEN- 
NIAL CELEBRATION 

Twenty-five years having elapsed since the opening of 
the first Normal School in the United States, it was thought 
proper by the friends of education that a meeting should 
be held commemorative of the event, at which the history 
of the origin and progress of the Normal School system 
should be stated, and a reunion of the graduates take place. 
The town of Framingham was selected as the best place, 
and the 1st of July as the day. 

The Class of 1839, having the honor of being the pio- 
neers, felt that it was only due to the occasion that they 
gather in as great force as possible, this being their Twenty- 
fifth Anniversary in truth ; and it was accordingly decided 
that the Class Meeting, which the records of the last year 
announced to be held the first Wednesday of September, 
should be omitted, and we would meet at Framingham July 
1, 1864. Accordingly, 

Maria Thompson, 
Eliza A. Rogers, 
Louisa Harris, 
Adeline M. Ireson, 
Susan E. B. Channing, 
Sarah E. Locke, 
Lydia H. Morton, 
Mary S. Lamson, 
Mary A. Davis 

were present, and we found ourselves the largest representa- 
tion from any one class. The presence of Mrs. Cyrus Peirce 



100 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

added greatly to our pleasure, as she had not been with us 
since 1858. 

The honors of the day were bestowed on us, and the first 
place in church and the hall was awarded us, all which was 
meekly borne, but is here recorded for the benefit of our 
grandchildren, who, we suppose, will be hunting the his- 
tories of old times for some good word of their ancestors. 
That some record appear in this our book, Mrs. M. S. Lam- 
son was appointed Class Secretary of the day. 

From the railroad station we proceeded to the church, 
where the Order of Exercises was carried out, the large 
audience paying the closest attention throughout, although 
they occupied nearly three hours. At the close a proces- 
sion was formed and marched to a large hall a little re- 
moved from the town, where the good people of Framing- 
ham had made most liberal provision for the wants of the 
inner man, which by this time had become quite pressing. 
Rev. Mr. Allen invoked a blessing. 

The collation over, Hon. Josiah Quincy, Jr., was called 
to preside, in place of Governor Andrew, who was detained 
in Boston by business. In assuming the chair he made 
remarks specially alluding to Hon. Horace Mann and his 
unwearied labors in the cause of education and the success 
which had attended them, and called upon Mrs. Walton 
(a graduate and former teacher) to give the welcoming 
address on behalf of the people of Framingham. Rev. 
Charles Brooks, of Medford, followed, giving a long history 
of his early labors in the cause in 1835, 1836, and 1837. 
Rev. Mr. May, Mr. Stearns, and Mr. G. B. Emerson followed. 
A poem by Mrs. Howarth, with remarks by Judge Wash- 
burn, Mr. Barnard, of Connecticut, Mr. White, Secretary 
of the Board of Education, filled up the allotted time, the 
whole being enlivened by saUies of wit and brilliant re- 



BECOBDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 101 

partee, for which the chairman of the day is ever celebrated. 
There were other gentlemen equally distinguished who could 
not be heard for want of time. The time had arrived when 
adieus must be said, and all united in singing the closing 
song to the tune of " Auld Lang Syne/' and after a half 
hour spent in social intercourse, the train started, bearing 
the greater number of the visitors. 

A few stayed behind to attend the closing levee in the 
hall of the schoolhouse in the evening, and so ended our 
Twenty-fifth Anniversary, an occasion which seemed to be 
enjoyed by all who participated in it. 



FIFTEENTH MEETING 

At the Marlboro Hotel, Boston, September 6, 1865, our 
Class held its Fifteenth Meeting, at which eleven members 
were present. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon .... West Cambridge. 

Mrs. Mary A. Davis Cambridge. 

Nellie A. Davis Cambridge. 

J. Herbert Davis Cambridge. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris East Boston. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mrs. Sarah E. Richardson .... Woburn. 

David Loring, Jr Newton. 

Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lamson . . . Boston. 

Helen Lamson Boston. 

Gardner S. Lamson .... Boston. 

Kate G. Lamson Boston. 

Mrs. Maria Thompson Woburn. 

Nellie S. Thompson .... Woburn. 

Edgar B. Thompson .... Woburn. 

Mrs. Lydia A. Adams Fall River. 

Mr. and Mrs. James F. Drummond . New York. 

J. Wyman Drummond . . . New York. 

Kitty W. Drummond .... New York. 

Louise Drummond New York. 

Miss Eliza A. Rogers Billerica. 

Mrs. Susan E. B. Channing . . . Roxbury. 

Eva Channing Roxbury. 

Miss Catherine P. Wyman, a guest . Roxbury. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 103 

We assembled during the morning in one of the parlors 
of the Marlboro. Although the day was dull and showery, 
it did not prevent the attendance of any of our number, or 
of any of the children. In some respects our meeting was 
as pleasant as any we ever had, yet two circumstances con- 
spired to prevent the fullest enjoyment of the day : first, 
the parlor in which we held our meeting was in the front 
of the hotel, and the noise from the street prevented all 
general conversation ; and, second, we were obliged to take 
our dinner with the other guests of the hotel, which, of 
course, prevented that unrestrained interchange of ideas 
which had previously made this the pleasant part of the 
day. After all had assembled and the letters from our 
absent ones had been read, one of our number, to whom 
we are indebted for a great deal of intellectual enjoyment 
(Miss Harris), read to us a beautiful address. Only once 
before had we gathered together so many children — twelve 
in number. Each one found a congenial companion, and 
all seemed to enjoy the day as much as their mothers and 
aunts. 

MISS Harris's address. 

Returning to the home of one of my best-beloved friends 
after a delightful visit to the Penobscot, with only a day to 
spend with her before a long separation, I received a note 
from another well-beloved friend, informing me that I was 
expected to furnish a literary entertainment for our yearly 
gathering. She kindly assured me that she would see that 
a good dinner was furnished, but I must furnish the ad- 
dress. 

You have all journeyed ; perhaps your heads are stronger 
than mine — I really hope so ; but you know something 
of the wretched, weary, seasick feeling that follows a day's 
monotonous ride by rail-car. And perhaps some of you 



104 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

may remember^ though 'tis a shadowy, far-off time with 
most of you, how the radiance that was so bright during the 
first week of vacation is "taken from the sight" towards 
the close, and we cannot " bring back the splendor in the 
grass, the glory in the flower." As to the dinner prospect, 
— long and well had I loved my friend, — but a momentary 
tremor of indignation kindled towards her. A dinner for- 
sooth ! With the disgust for food I felt for the moment, 
it seemed to me if there was one man in history upon whom 
the gods should work their fiercest torments, it was old 
HeHogabalus, the lavish rewarder of the inventor of a new 
sauce. My Portland friend declared I should not spend 
my remaining hours with her in writing addresses, and I 
favored the idea no more than she did. As soon as I re- 
turned I was to mount the long hill on my adopted island, 
become at once involved in the perplexed and tortuous ma- 
chinery set in motion at the beginning of a school year, 
and in two days — Class Meeting. My first impulse was to 
decline gracefully. Then I remembered, with a pang, I 
could not do things gracefully. 

General Grant is a man of wondrous power. He proved 
it in counsel and camp, but oh how much more conclusively 
has he proved it in his last campaign. A mediocre man 
would have distracted the people with grandiloquent and 
stirring speeches. He would not have had the necessary 
strength or grace for avoidance. He would have begun to 
think with Sancho Panza, " so my speeches be in print, and 
handed about, I care not a fig what they say of me." But 
he had done a truly great man's work in the world ; his 
record was pure and noble ; no rhetoric could add lustre to 
his patriotism, no vehement declamation bring into bolder 
relief the bravery that has smitten with admiration even our 
scoffers beyond the sea. And will not our speech-loving 



EECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 105 

Americans learn a lesson from his persistent brave refusals 
to be drawn into this national maelstrom ? 

But, my dear sisters, you do not expect from me either the 
courage or the discretion of our national hero. When you 
solicit a speech, I cannot stand up and " by golden silence " 
impress you grandly. If I were beautiful, I would try it. 
Had I done the royal work many a woman of our day has 
done, it would be enough ; my presence would suggest the 
record, and no word of mortal man or woman could raise 
you to a height so royal. As you see, I can give little 
time or thought ; but I know it is pleasant to have some 
expression of our common thoughts and emotions when we 
meet, and I wish, for your interest, I could do it less hur- 
riedly and unworthily. 

In performing this duty, my thoughts naturally revert to 
the time I addressed you before, — that bright October 
morning when first we felt assured, I think, our love would 
hold. All that was at enmity with joy was banished. I 
see the revered form of our dear Father Peirce ; our cher- 
ished friend, Mrs. Peirce ; so many of our sisters, merry 
as in girlhood's brightest hour, but with the added charm 
and grace that noble duties and deep experiences must 
bring to loyal natures ; the old famihar scenes, our heart- 
grasp of which, though loosened, was not broken — you can 
recall them as vividly as I do. Long years have intervened 
since that lovely autumn day ; great throbs of joy and sor- 
row have left their impress ; part of the sunshine has dis- 
appeared with the loved ones who brought it ; but the web 
woven through the years has proved of no flimsy texture, 
the greetings are still fervent, and still we gather and are 
glad. As individuals, how we have grown or dwindled 
since that meeting ! Wealth and social distinction have 
come to some, long years of work that have sometimes 



106 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

looked weary work to others, the loving daughters, sisters' 
mission in homes that would have seemed dark without 
them to others, — work, noble or ignoble as the soul's atti- 
tude towards it has determined, has come to all. Perhaps, 
as far as outward circumstances are concerned, we diverge 
more widely than when we parted. And yet do not the 
noblest among you feel how vain and empty are all differ- 
ences that do not rest on what we loved and hated in the 
unworldly days of our school life ? I believe that wealth 
has brought none of its vulgar accompaniments to any of 
our number. I cannot think of one of you striving for the 
glare and glitter that wearies and does not satisfy. To me, 
depending more on the accidental relations of life than 
many of you — a wanderer, although by no means a sad 
and forlorn one — my heart yearns to tell you how your 
homes have seemed to me as the House Beautiful. I have 
realized most keenly among you, that love and refinement 
and culture do best adorn and hallow the true home. 
Wearied sometimes with the more uncongenial relations 
into which I have been thrown, though more fortunate than 
many of my profession and with much to be grateful for, I 
have felt my own soul warmed and lighted by the vestal 
fires burning so purely and steadily at your altars. Your 
children have strengthened my faith in the loveliness and 
purity of childhood, a faith that has sometimes mournfully 
threatened eclipse. 

That beloved voice sounding in our ears his cherished 
motto, " Live to the Truth," still sounds on, not an un- 
heeded murmur, but a hving voice, vitalized by the true 
life of him who uttered it. Some of our loveliest sisters 
have left us for those bright " morning hills " we may not 
see as yet. We did not wait till they left us to " feel the 
charm of their presence." Some who are dear to us are 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 107 

beyond lake and prairie and river, but we know their life 
mingles with that fresh, noble, earnest life that in the West 
has flowed forth freely and generously to redeem and hal- 
low our nation. When last we met, war's harsh noises sad- 
dened us ; but now the song of triumph sounds sweetly in 
our ears, as did Miriam's in the ears of her ransomed 
people. Yet who among us does not know the heart that 
sighs " ring your bells low and burn your lights faintly " ? 
Our America " is to rise to full stature," we believe, and 
such a peace be accomplished that our dead shall not cry, 

" That they died in vain, and 
Yearn to come back to the sun." 

Grand and holy seems our nation's mission ) and are we not 
a part of that nation ? 

The lovely summer days are just accomplished. From 
various routes of travel, from the homes of distant beloved 
ones, from your own homes, warmed and brightened by 
those who cannot come often, but leave a heavenly light 
behind them, we have come up hither. I have seen the 

" Sun upon the hills 
His mesh of beauty weave," 

and felt free and happy in nature's sweetest haunts. I 
have seemed to see heaven's " liberal blue " as I cannot 
see it in my city life amid the routine of daily cares and 
fatigues. I have basked in the sunshine of homes all 
glorious with the heavenly hues wrought of love, the love 
born of kindred souls that had just recognized their kinship, 
the love that marriage had newly sanctified and but proved 
how divine was the flame, the love that dimpled the little 
child's witching face, and gleamed serenely from the brow 
of the aged, that made the mother's face radiant as an 
angel's, investing with its halo daughters, fathers, brothers, 



108 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

and sisters. And now, grateful for so much happiness, on 
the threshold of return to life's prosier, sterner duties, I 
grow strong and happy in your midst, grateful, indeed, for 
the faithful love that has survived the years and all the 
changes they have wrought, trusting, as we draw near that 
better land, we shall hear more and more clearly the music 
of our friendship. 



SIXTEENTH MEETING 

Saturday, August 31, 1867, our Class held its Six- 
teenth Annual Meeting in Boston, at the Winthrop House 
in Bowdoin Street, ten classmates attending, and the whole 
company, including honorary members and invited guests, 
numbering twenty-eight. 



NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 



Mr. and Mrs. Edwin Lamson . 

Gardner S. Lamson . . 

Kate G. Lamson . . . 
Mr. and Mrs. James F. Drummond . 

I. Wyman Drummond . 

Catherine W. Drummond 

Louise Drummond . . 
Mr. and Mrs. Kobert Adams . 
Mrs. Almira Locke Johnson . 

Almira Johnson . . . 

Orville B. Johnson . . 
Mrs. Maria Smith Thompson . 

Jenny L. Thompson . . 

Edgar B. Thompson . . 
Mrs. Hannah Rogers Blodgett 

Adeline M. Blodgett . . 
Miss Eliza A. Rogers . . . 
Miss Louisa E. Harris . . . 
Miss Adeline M. Ireson . . . 
Miss Hannah M. Damon . . 

Frederick W. Loring . . 
Guests : — 
Mrs. Elvira Rogers Gould. 



Boston. 

Boston. 

Boston. 

New York. 

New York. 

New York. 

New York. 

Fall River. 

Reed's Ferry, N. H. 

Reed's Ferry, N. H. 

Reed's Ferry, N. H. 

Woburn. 

Woburn. 

Woburn. 

"West Amesbury. 

West Amesbury. 

North BiUerica. 

East Boston. 

Cambridge. 

Arlington, 

Boston. 



110 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

Miss Harriet B. Rogers. 
Miss Catherine P. Wyman. 
Miss Annie Reed. 

LETTER FROM MRS. PEIRCE. 

Nantucket, August 26, 1867. 

My DEAR Friends, — With much pleasure I have re- 
ceived annual notices of your Class meetings and invita- 
tions to attend. Even though I may not have the happiness 
to attend myself, it will always be a source of pleasure to 
know that you are interested in their continuance. It is so 
long since you, members of the first Normal Class, assem- 
bled in that first Normal Hall, under the first Normal 
teacher, almost a generation having intervened, that I am 
carried back to a period of the deepest interest in my life 
experiences which no other event save these annual gather- 
ings has the power to effect. To your teacher, also, it was 
the culminating point of a long, laborious, conscientious 
life. How full of hope, of fear, of continued anxiety, you 
— then light-hearted girls — could not form an idea. Look- 
ing over the Records of the School for September, 1840, I 
find such entries as the following : " The community do 
seem to say that they do not want Normal Schools, and 
they will not patronize them. Well, then, the Lord send 
them something better which they do need." And again, 
" The clouds still hang about the horizon of Normalty, a 
part only of the old scholars returned ; and but one new 
one added ! This is dismal and discouraging enough. The 
community are not interested in Normal Schools, and I 
doubt whether they will be. I have exalted and proclaimed, 
and prayed and labored ; what more can I do ? I am still 
as one beating the air, significant of that anxious period ! " 
Now that a new generation has risen up, that Normal 
Schools have taken a place among the established institu- 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 111 

tions of the State, of the country I may say, and few have 
any idea of the struggles of that first year, of the anxie- 
ties, the dark days of all interested in their continuance, 
it is deeply interesting to know, even if I am not with you 
to talk of these things, that one little band, bound by old 
remembrances amid the cares and varied interests of so 
many years, are still bound by a common tie to that period 
to which my mind so often recurs. 

I cannot meet you this season ; still I am not without 
hope that I may have that great happiness at some future 
gathering. May you have a full attendance and a joyous 
meeting. Be assured I shall think of you all, both collec- 
tively and individually, and I send a most hearty greeting 
and kind wishes for your future life. 

I shall look with interest to the accounts some one of you 
will give me of this coming meeting, hoping, also, I shall 
learn from it anything new that may have affected the 
lives of individuals of Normal memory. 

With renewed good wishes to each and all, I remain, 
ever your friend, 

Harriet Peirce. 

We are sorry to report that two of this goodly number, 
namely, Messrs. Drummond and Lamson, absented them- 
selves from the collation table. In fact, they merely looked 
in upon us for a brief season each ; the former in the fore- 
noon, and the latter in the afternoon. But this was so 
much better than a total disregard of the occasion, we were 
disposed to make the best of it and adopt the motto, " The 
smallest favors thankfully received," especially from these 
gentlemen, who have very generously assisted at divers pre- 
vious meetings by their more prolonged presence. 

Our chief literary entertainment was Mrs. Peirce's letter 



112 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

in answer to our call for her attendance. It brought back 
our old teacher and old times and scenes visibly to mind, 
and awakened grateful thoughts of our large indebtedness 
to both Mr. and Mrs. Peirce for the good work done for us 
in those early days. Also pleasant letters were read from 
Miss Harris, Mrs. Morton, and Mrs. Clisby, and brief notes 
from one or two other absent classmates. As usual at these 
gatherings, conversation was exceedingly brisk and brilliant, 
and hearty laughter very prevalent — the sociability and 
hilarity of this reunion being enhanced by the genial pre- 
sence of the invited guests. 

The children throughout the day were perfectly harmo- 
nious and apparently very happy, amusing themselves with 
quiet parlor games, and in the afternoon spent an hour 
upon the Common. The rooms furnished us proved plea- 
sant and commodious, our table accommodations satisfac- 
tory, and the quietness of the location very agreeable. 

As the hour for separation drew near. Miss Damon was 
appointed to report the meeting in the Record Book, and 
also by letter to Mrs. Peirce. Then commenced the bustle 
of departure, those Hving at a distance leaving first, as 
usual, and those having homes in the immediate neighbor- 
hood lingering last to lengthen out the happy day. 



SEVENTEENTH MEETING 

September 2, 1870, on this the Thirtieth Anniversary 
of our Graduation, and twentieth year since our first Class 
Meeting, an exceedingly pleasant reunion was held at the 
Winthrop House. Nine of the class were present. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Winchester, Mass. 

Mrs. Sarah W. Drummond . . . New York. 

Mrs. Almira L. Johnson .... Reed's Ferry, N. H. 

Mrs. Sarah E. L. Richardson . . . Woburn. 

Mrs. Maria Thompson Woburn. 

Mrs. Mary A. Davis Lexington. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Roxbury. 

Miss Eliza A. Rogers Billerica. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson .... Cambridge. 

Children present : — 

Fred. W. Loring. 
Jenny L. Thompson. 
Nellie S. Thompson. 
I. Wyman Drummond. 
Kittie W. Drummond. 
Louise Drummond. 
Kate G. Lamson. 

Two guests, Mrs. H. B. Rogers, Kate Wyman, made a 
party of eighteen. 

Letters were received from Mrs. Peirce, Mrs. Channing, 
Mrs. Blodgett, Mrs. Morton, and Mrs. Adams. The morn- 
ing was spent in lively conversation on various topics. 



114 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

Mrs. Lamson, having just returned from a two years' stay 
in Europe, interested us all in her sketches and incidents 
of life abroad, discussing the causes and probable results of 
the war (Franco-Prussian). 

Miss Harris had come from a journey to the West, and 
gave a pleasing account of a visit to our friend, Mrs. Dean, 
at St. Paul, Minn., whom most of us had not seen in many 
years. According to a suggestion from Mrs. Peirce, a pro- 
position was made to hold our next meeting at Nantucket 
(Father Peirce's early home), which was unanimously ac- 
cepted. A collation was served at one o'clock, but as the 
company was dispersed at several small tables, the usual 
flow of wit and geniality during this hour was somewhat 
disturbed. Soon after four the meeting broke up, and we 
parted with Hngering regrets, showing that time has only 
strengthened the bond uniting us. Of our original num- 
ber, four have died — Sarah Hawkins, Eliza Pennell Blake, 
Amanda Parks Simonds, and Mary Stodder Loring ; with 
all but three of the remaining twenty-one we are in corre- 
spondence ; and of only two, Louisa Rolf e and Margaret 
O'Connor, have we lost all trace. Thirty years have not 
passed without bringing sad changes to many of us. Into 
many of our homes sickness has entered ; from some the 
stay and staff of the household has been taken, and open- 
ing buds and blossoms have been transplanted to a fairer 
clime. Some of our children have taken up the responsi- 
bilities of life for themselves, and with this year, we chron- 
icle the birth of our first grandchild, Morton Packard. So 
that, though we have not yet practically proved that " ten 
times one is ten," yet we can count now among our cher- 
ished band more than threescore. 



EIGHTEENTH MEETING 

On this August, 1871, the Thirty-first Anniversary of 
our Graduation and twenty-first year since our first Class 
Meeting, was held our Eighteenth Meeting, at Nantucket, 
at which nine of the class were present. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Mrs. Harriet Peirce Nantucket. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Boston. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mr. and Mrs. Jeduthan Richardson . East Boston. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Winchester. 

Kate G. Lamson Winchester. 

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Thompson . . Woburn. 

Mrs. Lydia A. Adams Fall River. 

Mrs. Sarah W. Drummond .... New York. 

I. Wyman Drummond .... New York. 

Kittie W. Drummond .... New York. 

Louise Drummond New York. 

Miss Eliza A. Rogers North Billerica. 

Mrs. Susan E. B. Channing .... West Roxbury. 

Eva Channing West Roxbury. 

Invited guests : — 

Mrs. Elvira Gould North Billerica. 

Miss Catherine P. Wyman .... Boston. 
Miss Abby T. Wyman Boston. 

It was proposed at our last year's meeting in Boston to 
visit Nantucket this year to enjoy the company of our 
friend, Mrs. Peirce, so much interested in our gatherings, 



116 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

visit the grave of Father Peirce, and find a quickening of 
the spirit in a place vitally and intimately associated with 
him. We also felt that as compagnons de voyage in a 
direction so removed from our ordinary routes of travel, we 
should not only enjoy a great deal of present pleasure, but 
store some very grateful memories for the days to come. 
Through the tact and energy of Mrs. Lamson, aided by 
Mrs. Peirce and Mrs. Channing in Nantucket, arrangements 
were so perfected for a journey and entertainment on ar- 
rival, as to make a very smooth and care-free way for us. 

It was a bright day when we started from the Provi- 
dence depot for New Bedford, and the company were in 
bright spirits. We arrived at New Bedford at about ten 
A. M., and, taking boat, landed at Martha's Vineyard at 
twelve, visiting the camp-meeting grounds, viewing with 
surprise and admiration the lovely city of cottages, so much 
more fair and fanciful and picturesque than most of us had 
imagined it. After lingering a few hours, we resumed our 
voyage and landed at Nantucket at six p. m. Mrs. Peirce 
and Mrs. Channing met us at the wharf and escorted us to 
our temporary home at Mrs. Fisher's, which was to be our 
common gathering-place, though most of us were to disperse 
for lodgings. Our hostess seemed so congenial and cordial 
and lovely that we felt very much at home. Our first tea 
was a dehghtfully social as well as busy occasion, and we 
remembered without disappointment the laudations of Nan- 
tucket cooking we had heard so often. Mrs. Peirce came 
down in the evening, when such communion as old friends 
long separated find most natural was enjoyed, though fa- 
tigue did not enable us to sit very late. We adjourned 
in groups to our various lodgings, and the next morning 
looked with lively interest upon the quaint and peculiar 
island — so famiUar in name and interest, though so new 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 117 

to most of us. After breakfast we all walked to Mrs. Peirce's 
and had a charming call, where various subjects of com- 
mon interest were discussed, Mrs. Peirce giving tone and 
direction to our conversation. 

I do not think one of our number could fail to admire 
the beauty and vigor of our aged friend — carrying into 
old age the charm and intelligence that won us so many 
years ago. But must not one be intelligent and sympa- 
thetic, and ahve in youth in no common degree, to furnish 
such an example in age ? We left her house, accompanied 
by her, to visit Father Peirce's grave, each of our company, 
including the children, carrying a small bouquet. We 
reached the spot, after a short walk, and there reverently 
laid our offering. As we stood there, remembering the 
warm and living soul whose worn and weary body rested in 
that quiet spot, did we not feel anew the influence that that 
life had shed upon our lives ? Was not that pilgrimage, 
after so many years from homes so distant, where interests 
so new and absorbing had come since the days we passed 
with him, strong testimony to that influence ? The stunted 
pines grew from the sandy soil, but the broad blue ocean 
gleamed gloriously beyond, fit emblem, it seemed, of those 
infinite and shining depths from which his inspiration 
came, bringing sublimer patience when the soil he strove 
to enrich and beautify looked so brown, and the growths 
seemed slow and imperceptible as those stunted pines. That 
grave brought back our past and gratefully recalled his 
work in shaping our future. 

In the afternoon we made a trip to Siasconset, on the 
south shore of the island, a distance of seven miles across a 
rutted road — quite out of the line of traveling experience 
— coming out on the fishermen's village on the ocean, a 
village resorted to as a watering-place at this season 3 visit- 



118 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

ing, also, Sankoty lighthouse, spending a half day worthy 
of description, but requiring too much time and room for 
insertion here. The mention of this trip will suggest a 
very charming half day to any of our number, — it was so 
rare and delightful, and no journey on smooth modern 
roads could furnish such spirits. Our evening was not very 
lively after a day so freighted with unusual experiences, and 
we separated early. 

Thursday morning was rainy ; but the sun shone by ten 
o'clock. We were invited by Mrs. Channing to her sister's 
home, where she was passing the summer. We saw lovely 
fresh flowers in abundance ; mounted to the walk on the 
roof — a peculiarity of Nantucket houses of the olden time, 
when the people looked anxiously for the coming of ships ; 
saw the " mother," whom we thought beautiful, and had a 
social, pleasant time. We also visited the Athenaeum, con- 
taining curiosities and books, and in the afternoon held our 
Class Meeting, Mrs. Fish preparing our Class dinner with 
loving care and interest. We read the record of our last 
meeting, the letters from our absent ones, talking of them 
and those who have left our vale for the eternal hills, — 
reading their recorded words from our Class Book ; feeling 
very sensibly the presence of other souls than those clothed 
in the flesh ; remembering and giving utterance to many 
words of our revered Father Peirce, — seeming to hear him 
again, as we listened to the voice of one so spiritually and 
indissolubly linked with him, feeling very grateful that she 
was still spared to bless and refresh our meetings. 

A letter came from Mrs. Dean, from St. Paul, during the 
afternoon, in which she told us that Harry Blake, the son 
of our classmate, Eliza Pennell Blake, was to be married in 
a few days. We seemed to see the mother young and fair 
as any bride, and we were forcibly reminded that we had 



RECORDS OF TEE FIRST CLASS 119 

voyaged some distance down time's stream since the days 
we met to celebrate. 

Our dining-table was tastefully adorned with flowers, the 
feast was fair to the eye as well as palatable to the taste, 
and we felt that we owed Mrs. Fish many thanks for the 
graceful, hearty manner in which she ministered to us. 

The evening was passed in a lively, chatty manner, hav- 
ing an informal tea after our late dinner; and Friday 
morning found us embarked for Boston. The clouds which 
overshadowed and overwept us soon dispersed, and we had 
a very charming voyage to the Vineyard, where we attended 
camp-meeting, traversed the lovely grounds at leisure, then 
embarked again for New Bedford. The journey was be- 
guiled by pleasant, Hvely talks and games with the children, 
whose fun and spirits were invaluable during the whole 
trip. We reached Boston at six p. M., returning to our 
several homes, each feeling that she had added to the 
brighter records of the past some of their brightest pages. 
I, for one, felt specially grateful to our ever-ready, active, 
and gifted friend, Mrs. Lamson, for the enterprise and tact 
and foresight which made our plans for a meeting at Nan- 
tucket so complete a success. 

[At the request of the Class, Mrs. Peirce wrote the fol- 
lowing letter for the Kecords:] 

MRS. peirce' S LETTER. 

I promised some one, I can't be certain who it was, but I 
certainly did promise some one, that I would write my name 
in this book. And I must be true to my promise, else I 
should forfeit my standing with all truth-loving Normals. 
But when I made that rash promise Httle knew I the ob- 
stacles which lay in the way of its accompHshment. And, 



120 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

strange as it may seem, obstacles which the writers in this 
book have themselves cast in the way. Yes, to you who 
have made the request, I must impute the difficulty of the 
past. 

Several times, as I have opened the book to redeem my 
promise, the pen has been laid down ; then, after an inter- 
val, as I was again about to perform my self-imposed task, 
the same obstacles stood in my way ; until at last, by ex- 
haustive persistence the entire difficulty is overcome, and I 
might write my name with a feehng of joy and triumph. 

Harriet Peirce. 

But now, having accomplished this feat, I find myself 
aspiring to something yet higher. Some one has said, 
'' upon stepping stones of our slain selves we mount to new 
altitudes." 

But I bethink me that you may have some curiosity to 
know what were the stumbling-blocks which so long ob- 
structed the fulfillment of my promise. To be brief, then, 
it was reading its all-absorbing articles in this book which 
you have handed me, every line of which has so carried me 
back to old Normal days, when you were banded together 
as a class, so opened up to me the vistas of your sundered 
paths that, ere I was aware of the lapse of time, calls to 
other duties claimed my attention, and the name was still 
unwritten. 

I have perused the pages of this book with feelings too 
deep for expression ; but without further remarks I will 
say that, among much that deeply interested me, nothing 
so moved my inmost soul as the expression of mutual love 
and sympathy gushing in unstudied phrase from its many 
and long-continued entries. And now let me add what I 
referred to as an addition after writing my name. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 121 

When for the first time I beheld your almost strange 
faces, as you came from the boat, and the more familiar 
ones at the evening gathering, it all seemed so strange that 
I could not realize its full meaning. It seemed a night vision 
from which I should suddenly awake. Then, again, on the 
following morning, when all stood around the grave of their 
teacher, surmounted by the monument which their own 
grateful hearts had erected, and I looked back thirty-two 
years, when that teacher left his island home with many 
tears and much distrust of himself in the untried path 
before him of " teaching teachers how to teach," — this, 
thought I, is truly an hour of triumph. After so many 
years of varied experience and divergent life-paths, here all 
had converged, with one united feeling, to lay a love token 
of gratitude on the unanswering grave of their long-remem- 
bered teacher, friend, and Father. And could he have audi- 
bly addressed them from that hallowed spot, what would he 
have said but the old famihar words, " Live to the Truth ? " 
But would he not have added, " My dear children, I rejoice 
that you have not been unmindful of this exhortation in so 
far as it has been your purpose in life to obey its spirit ? " 

Think truly and thy thought 

Shall the world's famine feed ; 
Speak truly and thy word 

Shall be a fruitful seed ; 
Live truly and thy life shall be 

A great and noble deed. 

HORATIUS BONAB. 



NINETEENTH MEETING 

On Wednesday, September 4, 1874, the Nineteenth Meet- 
ing of our Class was held at the Winthrop House, Boston, 
Mass. Thirteen members of the Class were present. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Mrs. Lydia A. Adams Fall Kiver. 

Mrs. Hannah Blodgett West Amesbury. 

Miss Hannah Damon West Cambridge. 

Mrs. Mary A. Davis Lexington. 

Mrs. K. M. Dean St. Paul, Minn. 

Mrs. Sarah W. Drummond .... New York. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris East Boston. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mrs. Almira L. Johnson Eeed's Ferry, N. H. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Boston. 

Mrs. L. H. Morton Halifax. 

Miss Eliza A. Rogers North Billerica. 

Mrs. Maria S. Thompson Woburn. 

Six children and one grandchild were present : — 

Master Edward S. Adams. 

Mrs. Adehne M. Allen. 

Miss Florence Davis. 

Miss Kittie Drummond. 

Miss Louisa Drummond. 

Miss Kate G. Lamson. 

Cyrus Morton Packard, grandson of Mrs. Lydia H. Morton. 

Invited guests : — 

Miss Harriet Rogers. Mrs. Sarah Stanwood. 

Miss Abby Wyman. Mrs. Elvira Gould. 



/ 



BECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 123 

The morning was spent in the chit-chat suggested by the 
occasion, which always seems to come in floods when friends 
long separated find themselves together once more. There 
had been no meeting for the last two years, and most of the 
Class had not seen each other since the meeting at Nantucket. 
An invalid friend, who had been unable to be present for 
several years, was welcomed with such warm demonstrations 
as plainly showed how much she had been missed. Another, 
who had been absent for twenty-two years, was also most 
affectionately welcomed. 

What a beautiful and blessed experience has been to us 
all this preservation of our early friendship, this treasuring 
the pleasant memories of our school life ! I wish I knew 
in whose head — heart, I should say — it had its origin. 
Her name ought to be inscribed on these pages in letters of 
gold. 

Our children, as ever, added greatly to the pleasure of 
the occasion. One of them — Mrs. Allen — had intended 
surprising us with a visit from our young granddaughter. 
The grandson present was alone of his generation ; but I 
presume he will find pleasant company at the next meeting. 

The lunch was very plentiful, the company very social, 
and everything very enjoyable. 

After our return to the parlor, Mrs. Lamson read letters 
from Mrs. Peirce, Mrs. Channing, Mrs. Usher, Mrs. Hall, 
and Mrs. Richardson expressing regrets at their inability 
to attend, and explaining the causes which made the absence 
necessary. 

The records of the last meeting were read by Miss Harris, 
also Mrs. Pierce's very beautiful entry in this book. The 
story of that visit to Nantucket — to Mrs. Peirce, to the 
grave of our dear Father Pierce — was exceedingly inter- 
esting. 



124 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

Mrs. Lamson gave a graphic account of the June meeting 
of the graduates of the First Normal School held at Fra- 
mingham. She was called upon on that occasion to give a 
sketch of the early days of the " Experiment." This led to 
a general interchange of reminiscences of school life, in 
which each took part as she had will and found oppor- 
tunity. 

We give here the story of our first Sunday in Lexington, 
as told by one of the five girls who had part in it : " On 
Saturday Mr. Peirce told us he would call Sunday morning 
and escort us to church, and we five were in readiness. A 
short walk along one side of the Common brought us to the 
corner where stood the old church — a rehc of the last cen- 
tury ; few such were remaining in New England. 

" We were shown to a pew in the middle aisle, Mr. and 
Mrs. Peirce occupying one not far from us. The pews were 
square, with a door on one side, and uncushioned oak seats 
were on the other sides. The backs of these were high, and 
finished at the top with slats, like a child's crib. 

" The service opened as was usual in other churches, and 
we followed the example of the congregation, anxious to do 
just the right thing. All went well until the long prayer, 
during which the congregation stood. There was scarcely 
room for us all to stand in the middle of the pew, and we 
were so occupied arranging ourselves that we did not notice 
— what we had never seen in a church before — that all the 
seats turned up on hinges, thus giving room for as many 
standers as sitters. The prayer ended, when as the minister 
was saying ' Amen ! ' every seat in the church went down in 
exact time with a bang. We jumped, looked inquiringly 
in each others' faces, and — laughed ! Alas, that this our 
first introduction to a Lexington assemblage should have 
given to these demure old people cause to feel that the town 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 125 

had opened its doors to ill-behaved, irreverent girls ! But 
so it was, and the Normal School had to go to church 
months before this Sunday was forgiven, and longer before 
it was forgotten. 

" Mr. Peirce did not say a word of reproof to us, and the 
exemplary conduct which followed was proof of his wisdom 
and that we had learned our Sunday lesson." 

The business meeting dissolved rather than was dis- 
missed. 

Eyes moistened as we looked into each others' faces and 
spoke of the loved ones missing from our sisterhood. Mary 
Loring, Eliza Blake, and since the last meeting another, our 
dearly beloved Sarah Sparrell CHsby, had gone to join those 
who wait for us in the world of light and love. Her death 
was very sudden, while she was in the midst of preparations 
for a journey to visit one of our number. Her sweetness 
and frankness, gentleness and firmness, which we all remem- 
ber as her characteristic traits when a schoolgirl, had made 
her life one of great beauty and of great usefulness. 

And dear Father Peirce, the magnet which drew us to- 
gether ! — and he has helped to hold us one strong and 
united group. What tender, reverent emotions filled our 
hearts as we spoke of him ! 

But the hours flew, and the time for home-going came 
before we were ready for it. Each one Hngered, as loath to 
say good-by. With the farewell hand grasp is breathed 
many a prayer that the good Father of all will keep us with 
His tenderest care, and permit us yet many more meetings 
soul-satisfying as this has been. 



IN MEMORIAM 

As we hold no meeting this year (1876), Miss Harris, by 
request of some of her classmates, makes the following record 
for the year : It was supposed we should hold an informal 
meeting at least after the death of our dear friend, Miss 
Rogers, and the record took rather the form of an address 
on that supposition. But when the news of Mr. Lamson's 
death came with such a shock of surprise and sorrow, I 
think none of our number counted upon a meeting. We 
have always realized how much we depended upon Mrs. 
Lamson for the life and success of these gatherings, but 
most gratefully and affectionately do we acknowledge that 
dependence now, when her strong, beautiful spirit is bowed 
with grief and loss. Mr. Lamson's death following so soon 
the friend who was a famiHar and beloved presence in his 
home, we must defer our meeting till another year. Then, 
if our joy be tempered by a sense of loss and sorrow, our 
love and interest will be even stronger we trust, and the 
memory of this year's death be radiant and holy. 

Miss Rogers died at her home in North Billerica, June 25, 
1876. 

Mr. Lamson died at his home in Winchester, July 23, 
1876. 

How many recall that happy October morning we gath- 
ered at Lexington to hold our first Class meeting ? How 
bright it was ! How gay and merry we were ! How fresh 
our school-day memories ! If we could not say, " Our 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 127 

ranks are full, our mates all here," we could say, " They 
send us happy greetings ; they would come next year. Dis- 
tance only divides us. Even now they look impatiently for 
a record of to-day's doings at dear old Lexington." Ten 
years had elapsed since we parted, — years that of course 
brought changes ; but they were rather the strengthening 
of fair hopes, the ripening of qualities whose germs were 
familiar and welcome in those earlier days. We had trav- 
eled far enough and battled warmly enough with difficulty 
to waken a better sense of what Father Peirce had done for 
us than when we left him, and from the nearer level ex- 
change the genial, playful word that bespoke our better, 
deeper understanding of each other. Youth still was ours, 
and we worked with vigor and with joy. How many old 
friends among the townspeople, too, greeted us as we re- 
turned to them ! 

But the years have rolled their ceaseless round. We have 
taken deeper draughts of life — draughts not always from 
sweet fountains. Shadows have grown longer ; much that 
seemed then to make the brightness of our lives has gone. 
From year to year we have come together, have chronicled 
our gains and our losses, and failed as signally as we always 
fail to express the love, the sorrow, and the solace that 
burn and tremble and yearn in our souls when we think of 
our beloved. We have come to see them transfigured in 
memory : their tones, their words, return to us filled with a 
sweeter melody, a deeper meaning ; they are a shining pre- 
sence at our gatherings now, the " angel guests " at all our 
meetings. 

There was one at that first meeting who made so much 
of its sunshine and sparkle I always seem to hear her genial, 
witty, graceful word, to see her mobile, expressive face as 
sensibly as any living, breathing member of our company. 



128 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

How loyally she clung to the dear old Class, and helped to 
vitalize and unite and perpetuate it during all her many- 
sided life in the city so full of interests to her. And when 
in the ripeness and beauty of womanhood she laid down the 
sweet burden of her life and passed " beyond the boundary 
of tears," how natural was the notice we read in the paper 
announcing her death, inviting her Lexington classmates 
especially, among her numerous friends, to the farewell ser- 
vice. And when she came no more, there was one among 
the younger guests who came with a new interest, and 
seemed to have a new relation with us. The mother's grace 
and brightness and sparkle came back to us in the fair and 
winning boy, who loved to be where she had held so large a 
place. Did we not all feel pride and satisfaction in his grow- 
ing fame, his chivalrous quest of fresh, heroic life? Did we 
not anticipate in something of her spirit the golden harvest 
he was to reap from all this dangerous venture ? Golden 
in a sense so much richer than the toiling miner's gains. 
How tremblingly yet proudly she would have watched that 
journey over the barren, deadly wastes, finding in herself 
strains so responsive to the boy's, whose nature she knew 
so well. He should be no maudlin singer of weak songs 
stirred only by his city life — a record musical, no doubt, 
of carpet knight's adventures or student's pranks or shal- 
low loves born of fancy and destined only for her paler 
realm. He cannot write heartily of heroic deeds while he 
lives and knows only the petty plots and entanglements of 
conventional society. His stories must not be weak and 
nerveless ; he must be stirred by danger, thrilled by the 
heroic life of men who have cut loose from the defenses 
and shelters of a safe civilization. He must battle with 
mightier forces, and then he will write in grander, loftier 
strains. There was so much of the mother in the boy, I 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 129 

think she might have spoken thus, rather than hold him 
back from the path he sought so buoyantly. We could 
easily imagine, had no word reached us, how his elastic 
nature would bound and revel as he turned towards home 
and friends, with the consciousness of having bravely dared 
the dark, appalHng way. 

He had so much to tell — he would so enjoy the tell- 
ing he would reveal some of the secrets nature had hidden 
in those dark, majestic ways. Strange, fantastic, grand 
thoughts came to him. Fancy and fact had mingled in 
artistic shapes, weird pictures haunted him, and he would try 
and translate them for those who could never dare the dread 
abysses it was his privilege to fathom. bright, audacious, 
impulsive youth ! Flaunting the Persian banner toward 
Grecian battlefields it cries, "Athos, thou proud, aspiring 
mountain that liftest up thy head into the heavens, be not so 
audacious as to put obstacles in my way. If thou oppose me, 
I would cut thee level with the plain or cast thee headlong 
into the sea ! " With fiery zeal it rallies to espouse the 
cause of France's hero, though Waterloo has spoken, and 
hoary marshals know his day is done. How confident it 
sails to arctic seas, where the Ice King would prove a King 
of Terrors to hearts less stout and bold. How gayly it 
follows the Indian trail through our Western wilderness. 
Nothing seems too visionary, too wild, too perilous, for its 
dauntless spirit, its impulsive brain. These hills may look 
gray and barren to the worn and jaded hero who has 
climbed them too often in storm and weariness; he sees 
only the Edelweiss blooming so lovely on its remotest crags, 
and would pluck it and descend a proven knight, above all 
suspicion of weakness or cowardice. " The chivalric youth 
sees but one side of the medal, and the figures on that side 
are so bold and beautiful he sees no ugly death's-head on 



130 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

the reverse." But that fearful valley of death was a sad 
omen of the fate awaiting our young friend when all danger 
seemed bravely passed. With our thrill of sorrow and of 
horror could we but rejoice that the mother looked from 
the Great Beyond with that clearer vision that penetrates 
the mystery and reads the meaning of all this tangled web 
of misery? His Hfe seemed too precious, too full of promise, 
for a fate like that. A peaceful death, with all the solace 
of home and friends, would have been a great disappoint- 
ment and bitterness. I remember well the enthusiasm with 
which he expressed to me his enjoyment of our meetings, — 
an enthusiasm and interest like that his mother had always 
shown. But he talked with me enough for me to know 
how sensitive his nature was ; how he loved the sparkle 
and wine of life ; how impatiently he would have voyaged 
over its shallows. Who knows how restive he would have 
grown with the prosaic elements he must have encountered 
in the world about him — how even through his later, as 
his earlier manhood, he would have ^^felt a mother want 
about the world," missing always the one dear friend he 
lost so early and mourned with a sorrow that looks so pre- 
maturely bitter and abiding. He who knows the agony 
concentrated in that last brief struggle knows also the 
boon and felicity bestowed upon this young, ardent soul 
by the death that looked so premature and painful to mor- 
tal eyes. 

Twice again we have spoken our feeble word of eulogy 
and remembrance of those who graced and honored our 
school days. But our associations with them were mostly 
limited to those days, as circumstances prevented their at- 
tendance at these meetings. They were among our well 
beloved and would have added a great charm to these occa- 
sions, and we counted their absence great loss before they 



BECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 131 

passed into the Silent Land. Some who had become nearer 
to our classmates than their old associates have gone, leav- 
ing widowed hearts and bereaved and shadowed homes. 
Some of us who had breathed the pleasant atmosphere of 
those homes know the work and beauty of the lives that so 
blessed and rounded theirs. Years have now elapsed since 
Father Peirce gladdened and dignified our meetings. We 
have gathered reverently about his island grave and heard 
. the sea chant his solemn requiem. Little children, guided 
more wisely because of his guiding, dropped with us the 
flowers upon that grave. But the tear that welled from 
memory's shrine and swelling fountain they had not learned 
to shed. I think that was the most real and heart-full meet- 
ing to our dear friend, Mrs. Pierce, we have ever held. Our 
whole visit to Nantucket will be memorable and beautiful 
always. How genial and large and true beat for us that 
bereaved and widowed heart ! Did we not all wish to be 
so true and noble ourselves that she would rejoice to think 
of us illustrating in our lives his teachings and influence ? 

Our last meeting brought us some pleasant surprises, and 
was especially bright and cheerful. To-day we are sad- 
dened by a fresh sorrow. One on whose coming we always 
counted, who was second to none in interest and effort to 
perpetuate our meetings, is absent for the second time 
through all these years, Eliza A. Rogers. Do you wish, 
dear friends, that I should teU you anything of her ? As 
you recall that beaming, happy face — that frank, cheery, 
inspiring word — do you not feel, as I do, that light has 
indeed faded from our world and the shadow lies dark over 
us? Were we perplexed and troubled by any question 
requiring clear good sense and just and sterling judgment, 
to whom did we turn more readily ? Was there a cause 
demanding sacrifice and self-forgetfulness, who so prompt 



132 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

to declare herself free to embrace it? Was there a char- 
ity pleading for sinew and support, who so rich to con- 
tribute? Was there a dark side to any future obtruding 
itself unduly or unwisely, who so quick to discern the " sil- 
ver Hning to the cloud/' the play of living light, when 
all others saw only shadow, and help us to see it too ? It 
is easy to express sympathy and kindness in kindly, gra- 
cious speech, and it is healing, too, when it comes from a 
sincere and loving heart. But how much rarer and, for 
most of us, how much harder to bend our own back to the 
burden, give our own time, our own money, our whatever 
treasure we may hold in no prodigal measure, and make 
one feel we have parted with nothing that brings loss to us. 
You all know the generous nature, but I think you cannot 
all know as well as a few of us do how instinctively she 
divined the needs hidden from less sympathetic souls, how 
delicately she ministered, and impressed you that she was 
seeking only a revel and delight for herself. (It was rarer 
because sheltered in home and surrounded by kindred. 
Called to stifle no reasonable desire herself, she did not 
learn what some ample natures often learn from a compel- 
ling experience.) Was there ever one less " clogged with 
self " — one who took more cheerily your burdens, and 
bore them as though they were her burdens too ? 

"I deserve no credit," she said, in my last impressive 
interview with her ; " it was only God's blessed gift to me. 
I found my pleasure so." Yes, there are some natures that 
seem to " mount spontaneously to goodness, as the flame 
mounts upward," and the siren voices have less charm for 
these souls entranced with the sweeter music. But whence 
comes this sweeter music ? Has there been no battlino^ of 
forces, think you, through this life of more than fifty years 
— no wilderness — no temptation — no clamor of selfhood? 



KECOEDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 133 

We cannot question the happy temperament that blessed 
our friend and so blessed us so signally. But when one 
so full of energy and power, so equipped for the mightier 
tasks whose fulfillment brings renown and observation, 
takes up the lowlier, narrower life of a quiet rural neigh- 
borhood, and lives it so cheerily, so richly, do we feel so 
sure it is only a matter of temperament ? I cannot think 
so. I believe she humbly and gratefully acknowledged her 
gifts and gave herself, in a spirit of holy trust and conse- 
cration, to the service of the Giver, striving always to do 
His will and make it her own. She had trod this royal 
road of love and service so long, such a bracing atmosphere 
of grateful appreciation surrounded her, no wonder she for- 
got the mazes and perplexities of the path which led to it, 
and she believed most truthfully it had cost her nothing. 

I remember with what glowing earnestness she used to 
repeat a poem on " the unspeakable majesty of duty," duty 
to be done though the heavens fall, that chimed in with 
the high fidelity of her steadfast nature. " Maud MuUer " 
was among the favorites which she often quoted. The 
relation of soul to soul, the sweet outgoing of kindred 
natures in recognition of their kinship — and then the hard, 
cold barriers hurled between by worldliness and conven- 
tionality. It touched the chord that was ever so true to 
the real and essential, that felt the mistake and pain and 
discord wrought by self-love and pride and heartless ambi- 
tion. I think there are some who will recall with me her 
frequent quotations from " Hiawatha." There was some- 
thing in the 

" Homely phrases . . . 
Full of hope and yet of heart-break, 
Full of all the tender pathos 
Of the Here and the Hereafter " 



134 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

that found in her one of those 

" Whose hearts are fresh and simple, 
Who have faith in God and Nature, 
Who believe, that in all ages 
Every human heart is human, 
That in even savage bosoms 
There are longings, yearnings, strivings 
For the good they comprehend not, 
That the feeble hands and helpless 
Touch God's right hand in that darkness 
And are lifted up and strengthened." 

But the hour came when the more purely spiritual poetry 
was oftenest upon her lips, and seemed most fit and wel- 
come. 

" Still, still with Thee when purple morning breaketh. 

When the bird waketh and the shadows flee ; 
Fairer than morning, lovelier than the daylight. 
Dawns the sweet consciousness I am with Thee." 

This was the verse with which she loved to greet these morn- 
ings " when suffering became her worship." 

" When winds are raging in the upper ocean, 
And billows wild contend with angry roar, 
'Tis said far down beneath the wild commotion 
That peaceful silence reigneth evermore. 

" So to the heart that knows Thy love, Purest, 
There is a temple, sacred evermore. 
And all the babble of life's angry voices 
Dies in hushed silence at its peaceful door. 

** Rest of rests, Peace serene, eternal, 

Thou ever livest, and Thou changest never. 
And in the secret of Thy presence dwelleth 
Fullness of joy forever and forever." 

This she wished to hear from lips she loved in those last 
hours when this " Rest of rests " was so near to her. 



BECOBDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 135 

" If Mara must be Mara, 
He will stand beside the brink," 

were among the lines that brought solace and elevation to 
her spirit. But dwelling on these loftier heights, face to 
face with these deeper realities, how she enfolded her help- 
ful arms about those who dwelt below, lifting them too. 

How she remembered the details of their life, the threads 
they were to take when she dropped them ! And how 
strongly and lovingly she strove to pass them on without 
entanglement or fracture or loss ! She wished " to make 
things easier for them after she was gone." wise, large, 
helpful soul ! How httle she dreamed in her self-forgetful- 
ness the great boon and blessing her life had been, and how 
much clearer and easier the way must henceforth be because 
she had lived it before them ! Among my happiest hours 
I recall those leisurely drives through the green, quiet lanes 
of her neighborhood, when we drank in the sweet influences 
about us. As factory girl or day laborer returned her plea- 
sant good-morning or good-evening, how their brightening 
faces expressed the esteem in which they held her ! And 
how plainly I could read a recognition of kindness done in 
some hour of need ! 

She was full of interest and suggestion, knew so much 
woodland lore, every flower seemed familiar and hinted some 
old association, and she was on most friendly, sympathetic, 
terms with the nature about her. There was one spot 
where she had discovered the deHcate harebell. Every 
season after she rode there in happy consciousness that it 
awaited her. " There they swung as if the chimes of peace 
they rung beneath." And how she always welcomed them, 
and gathered some to grace the home ! 

I thought of the fancy that some flowers reveal them- 
selves to certain people, while they shyly and successfully 



136 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

evade the ordinary seeker. The fair flower seemed to know 
how sincere and true a lover she was, how faithfully she 
always kept her promise, and felt a human pride and satis- 
faction in offering the greeting she expected so confidently. 

Sometimes we spent our bright morning hour so, and its 
sparkle and freshness found in her an answering spirit. 
But her duties were such that the evening drive was more 
frequent. " Come, girls ! we will follow the sunset to- 
night," she would say in her cheery way. And so in the 
peaceful hours of the waning day, in the sweet bloom and 
verdure of the summer, we recalled our common memories, 
which ran back through so many years, talked thoughtfully 
of the years to come, discussing the present often with sparkle 
and merriment. Once I remember she spoke of the changes 
a few years must inevitably bring to her home in the order 
of nature ; but she would not shadow the blessing she was 
privileged to hold so long by dwelhng on that inevitable 
future with depressing, dismal thoughts. How little we 
then thought how that change was to come ! 

Within a few weeks I have ridden through those quiet 
lanes, and looked upon another sunset. As the orb de- 
scended in glory, we stood, tearful and bereaved, beside the 
new-made grave. She was not there in the flesh to brighten 
and glow in the sweetness and beauty of the hour she loved ; 
but those most dear to her, whom she had helped to form 
and inspire and influence from earliest childhood, were with 
us, and her spirit filled and hallowed the hour and place. 
We had seen the form we loved laid there in the flush and 
beauty of a rare June day, the birds singing as gayly as they 
had ever sung to her Hstening and sympathetic ear. Lov- 
ing hands had converted the grave into a bed of roses, and 
all was beauty and brightness without, all so harmonized 
with the life transplanted before weariness and weakness 



RECORDS OF TEE FIRST CLASS 137 

had darkened it, — mercifully spared the pain that would 
seem incident to her disease, — the dear home with father 
and mother even to the end, the spirit all strengthened 
and attuned for its passage, and strong enough to uphold 
and comfort those who were to stay. The flowers that shed 
their fragrance about her coffin were chosen by friends, 
whose feelings found fittest expression in these emblems 
of immortal bloom and beauty. But one fair rose seemed 
holier and sweeter than the rest. It lay alone in that hand 
that had done so well its work of helpfulness and blessing, 
and seemed to have gathered to itself all the fragrance and 
beauty of the roses that had bloomed where it grew in the 
years gone by. The rose tree that bore it had been a legacy 
from dear ones gone before, and she had tended its trans- 
planting from the garden so tenderly associated with them. 
In the hours of illness these roses seemed to breathe a sacred 
perfume, not only from the bright, dewy morning, whose 
beauty her sufferings did not obscure, but from that dear 
old past with which they were Hnked in affectionate and 
reverent interest. It was meet that that flower so fragrant 
with some of the dearest memories and affections of her 
earlier life should hold the place given it by those who 
knew so well its history. 

As we returned from the grave on our recent visit to the 
home so permeated and blessed by her spirit, we could but 
say, even in our hour of loss and loneliness, " Thrice 
happy" such a life, such a death! And now may we not 
count ourselves happy, dear friends, to have known such a 
friendship, to have held such a presence so long, to hold 
such a memory now ? Happy the home, though bereaved 
and lonely, in whose atmosphere such a character has grown 
and ripened till it became a ministering spirit, flowing out 
and beyond to other homes and to the homeless. 



138 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

The little friend she loved so much (and who can doubt 
that he will be nobler and manlier for her love and teach- 
ing ?) said, in sweet, childhke fashion, to his mother, " he 
was trying hard not to be sorry, as auntie Eliza told him 
he must not be.'* May not we older children, who have not 
yet learned to surrender gladly the gifts that brighten and 
bless our lives, take a lesson from his artless words ? She 
would not have us sorrow that she has gone to that home 
of " ineffable light " of which she spoke so trustingly in 
her illness. Shall we not try, too, to lose our sense of loss 
and pain in the assurance of her infinite gain and f ehcity ? 

In my last interview with her she spoke of our Class 
meetings ; hoped they would not be given up, as I expressed 
the feeling which possessed me at that sad trial hour that 
they would be. " Perhaps we would not feel like meeting 
this autumn," she said ; but she should not like to feel we 
were to meet no more as a Class. 

These ties that have borne so well the stress of years of 
change and separation, shall they not receive a new conse- 
cration " as the warm light of our morning skies again 
smiles" through the shadows, and 

" In sweet sympathies of mind, 
In founts of feeling which retain 
Their pure fresh flow we yet may find 
Our early dreams not wholly vain ? " 

Will not the memory of our loved ones on the other shore 
make " our common landscape fairer ? " 

As we wave our farewells at each gathering, the query, 
Who will smile their greetings at our next ? comes more 
readily to our hearts each year. But our hearts may an- 
swer, — 

" Thou, Eternal Source and Goal, 
In Thy long years will make life's broken circle whole." 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 139 

" Loving hands we may not clasp, 
Shining feet that mock our haste, 
Gentle eyes we closed below, 
Tender voices heard once more. 
Smile and call us as they go 
On and onward still before. 
Guided thus, friends of mine, 
Let us walk our little way, 
Knowing by each beckoning sign 
That we are not quite astray. 
Chase we still, with baffled feet. 
Smiling eye, and waving hand : 
Sought and seeker soon shall meet 
Lost and found in Sunset Land." 



Since this last entry in our Record Book three more of our 
number have joined the invisible company on the other side, 
sending no more their word of greeting, or making us glad 
by their presence. One, Mrs. Susan Usher, lived too re- 
mote to meet with us, her home being in Wisconsin ; but 
that she remembered her old friends of Lexington memory, 
and was absent from their gatherings only because her home 
and duties were so far away, we had ample testimony, even 
if we did not remember so well her gentle, loving nature. 
I think no meeting has passed when we have not seen her 
sweet, expressive face shining among those bodily present, 
and to-day we will surely not forget its shining as we feel 
ourselves consecrated anew to the old ties, too strong for 
distance or death to sever. I wish we might know and 
welcome her children. I am told they are worthy of her. 

Our dear old friend Mrs. Hannah Blodgett has been with 
us so recently that we had watched with painful interest 
the decline from what seemed radiant health to pain and 
sufPering, ending in the great silence and mystery of death. 
We have seen, too, how beautiful such decline may be, — 



140 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

how the severing of dearest ties may be borne with a cheer- 
fulness of spirit gained by strongest faith in reunion and most 
confiding trust in the " bestness " of every event of God's 
ordaining. We take warmly to our hearts her only child, 
the object of her tender care and soHcitude, and shall always 
welcome her not only for herself, but for the mother of 
whose character and virtues she will so forcibly remind us. 

A rumor has come to us of the death of Mrs. Abbie 
Chandler. She has been lost to us for years by changes 
and removals we have been unable to follow. I remember 
her as one of the most cheerful of the company at our ear- 
liest meeting, when she brought some promising children. 
She was always cheery and energetic, with a bright face and 
word for the occasion, and, as you may remember, often 
quoted her favorite Burns with an aptness and quickness 
that was very pleasant. Cold and prosy natures do not 
quote Burns with such affection and heartiness, and I feel 
very sure that, whatever the fortunes and condition of our 
old friend, she has remembered us and the dear old days 
through all the years' vicissitudes, as we will remember her 
to-day with tenderness, while we regret that we know so 
little of her later years and the circumstances of her death. 



TWENTIETH MEETING 

Our Twentieth Class Meeting was held in Boston, Sep- 
tember 1, 1881, at the Crawford House, Scollay Square, 
corner of Brattle Street. 

Nine classmates were present, and the whole company 
numbered fifteen. 

NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton and grandchild, 

Helen Morton Packard Halifax. 

Mrs. Almira L. Johnson Boston. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Boston. 

Kate G. Lamson Boston. 

Mrs. Sarah W. Drummond New York. 

Mrs. Maria L. Thompson Woburn. 

Mrs. Sarah E. Richardson East Boston. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Portland. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon Boston. 

Mrs. Adeline Blodgett Allen Boston. 

Invited guests : — 

Mrs. Elvira Rogers Gould North BiUerica. 

Miss Harriet B. Rogers Northampton. 

Miss Catherine P. Wyman New York. 

ACCOUNT OF THE MEETING BY MISS DAMON. 

Seven years followed, in which the members were widely 
scattered, not only in the United States, but in Europe, and 
an attempt at a meeting would be likely to end in disap- 
pointment ; but in 1881, some of the wanderers having 



142 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

returned^ Mrs. Lamson, Miss Harris, and Miss Damon con- 
stituted themselves a committee of arrangements, and called 
our Twentieth Class Meeting, Mrs. Lamson assuming the 
responsibility of making the hotel arrangements, and Miss 
Harris taking upon herself the necessary correspondence. 
During the seven years past four of the classmates — Miss 
Rogers, Mrs. Usher, Mrs. Blodgett, and Mrs. Chandler — 
have passed from this mortal life ; Mr. Lamson, too, whose 
presence many times has added dignity and interest to our 
meetings, has during the same interval gone " the way of 
all the living." Therefore we who still remain came to- 
gether not only perceptibly older, but sobered and saddened 
by these and other experiences and vicissitudes. Neverthe- 
less, we felt that it was good to meet again and renew our 
knowledge of and interest in each other. 

Mrs. Lamson was at our parlor in the Crawford House 
early, ready to receive the others as they arrived. At noon, 
when all were assembled, she read to us the letters of those 
who were unable to be present, — one from our venerated 
mother, Mrs. Peirce ; one from Mrs. Adams, whose sick son 
kept her at home ; and one from Mrs. Davis, whose pressing 
home duties w^ould not permit her to be with us. Lastly, 
she read a letter which Mrs. Drummond had recently re- 
ceived from Rev. George M. Rice, now of Dublin, N. H., 
but of Lexington in our Normal School days, and well 
known to us there. The letter contained references to some 
of his old Normal School friends, and called up to us many 
amusing reminiscences, so that we felt greatly indebted to 
Mrs. Drummond for contributing it to our entertainment. 
Then Miss Harris read from the Record Book two entries 
made therein by herself, — the former soon after the deaths 
of Miss Rogers and Mr. Lamson ; the latter very recently, 
in which she pays fitting tributes to the characters of sev- 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 143 

eral of our dear departed ones. Heartfelt thanks were given 
to Miss Harris when the reading was finished for this con- 
tribution to the Record Book and the meeting. These ex- 
ercises over, we adjourned to a private dining-room, where, 
seated at one table and attended by one accomplished waiter, 
we enjoyed with quiet sociability an elegant, excellent, and 
plentiful collation. On our return to the parlor. Miss Da- 
mon was appointed to report the meeting in the Record 
Book, and correspondents were selected to write Mrs. Peirce, 
Mrs. Dean, Mrs. Davis, and Mrs. Adams an account of the 
meeting. The remainder of the time was spent socially, and 
we felt that our reunion had proved very satisfactory and 
had been a real success. 

LETTER FROM MRS. PEIRCE. 

Nantucket, August 28, 1881. 

My dear Mrs. Lamson, — A few days since I received 
a letter from Louise Harris informing me of the intended 
meeting of the Class, and requesting me to write if I could 
not attend. I cannot certainly attend, but I will attempt 
some sort of an answer to her request. But first please 
thank her for the very interesting letter, full of just such 
information as I wanted. 

If I should see either of you, the first question would be, 
How is your health? — important, certainly, at my age. In 
answer I must say that, applying a quite common phrase, I 
am outwardly quite demoralized, the framework being very 
much shattered, so that bad work in attempting to walk is 
inevitable ; consequently in the very short distances I occa- 
sionally go to see my friends, I have to take the arm of 
some one to steady me. My head is apt to get a little 
muddled ; my sight is good, and I have the enjoyment of 
reading as much as I wish, for which I am truly thankful. 



144 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

The lady with whom I boarded when you were here died 
last winter, since which time my home has been with a very 
pleasant lady in Main Street. So while I have some trou- 
bles I have many blessings. 

I do not expect to need any earthly home long, and en- 
deavor so to familiarize myself with the idea, that when I 
am called to leave it, I may have the cheering hope of an 
enduring home with the many friends who have left to go 
up higher. 

The time is long since you met, and the absence of dear 
ones will bring an alloy to temper your festivities ; but you 
have all Hved long enough to realize that such is life. As 
Louise said, I hope it will be a cheerful gathering, and that 
one will write me an account of it. Each and all accept my 
assurance of love and interest in all that concerns you and 
yours. With love, 

H. Peirce. 



TWENTY-FIRST MEETING 

On June 27, 1884, eleven of the surviving thirteen mem- 
bers of the Class of '39 met at the Quincy House, Brattle 
Street, Boston, the number being increased during the day 
to twenty-one, by the children of classmates. Unusual in- 
terest marked the gathering, as a few days would bring the 
Forty-fifth Anniversary of the formation of the First Nor- 
mal School in America, of which we were the first Class, 
and very naturally informal congratulations with allusions 
to the past occupied the morning. Letters were read from 
Mrs. Peirce, Mrs. Thompson, and Mrs. Drummond, who 
were prevented from meeting with us, the first by infirmi- 
ties of age and the last two by sickness. At noon an ele- 
gant dinner was served in a private dining-hall, to which 
eighteen sat down. An original poem was then read by 
Miss L. E. Harris, recalling the early school days ; and by 
special request Mrs. Channing read with admirable appre- 
ciation a poem by Miss Damon, entitled " Change," written 
for the first Normal gathering at Lexington, three years 
after graduation. A vote was passed that the Kecord 
Book and photograph of Father Peirce should be given by 
the last surviving member of this Class to the Framingham 
Normal School. Also to accept the invitation of Mrs. Mor- 
ton for a meeting of the Class at her home in HaHfax, Mass., 
on the seventeenth of June next. Various members were 
appointed to write accounts of the meeting to Mrs. Peirce 
and absent classmates. Three lovely daughters of members 
of the Class had been removed by death during the past 
year, — viz., Mrs. Jennie Lind Burbeck, daughter of Mrs. 



146 



FIEST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 



Thompson ; Mrs. Alice Phelps Merriam, daughter of Mrs. 
Davis, and Louise, daughter of Mrs. Drummond. 

The meeting was a very successful one, due in large 
measure to the efforts of Mrs. Lamson, who secured for us 
a place of meeting and presided during the day. As we 
parted, each felt that the tie uniting us had been strength- 
ened, and that these gatherings as a Class had added very 
much to the interest and richness of our lives. 



NAMES OF THOSE PRESENT. 



Mrs. Lydia H. Morton . . . 


, . Halifax. 


Mrs. Almira L. Johnson . . . 


. Boston. 


Mrs. Mary S. Lamson . . . . 


. Boston. 


Mrs. Sarah E. Richardson . . 


. . Somerville. 


Mrs. Rebecca P. Dean . . . . 


. St. Paul. 


Mrs. Lydia S. Adams . . . . 


. Fall River. 


Mrs. Mary A. Davis .... 


. . Lexington. 


Mrs. Susan E. B. Channins^ . , 


. Jamaica Plain 


Miss Hannah M. Damon . . . 


. Boston. 


Miss Louisa E. Harris . . . 


. . Portland. 


Miss Adeline M. L-eson . . . 


. , Cambridge. 


Children : — 




Mrs. Helen Lamson Robinson 


. New York. 


Mr. Gardner Swift Lamson . . 


. Boston. 


Mrs. Gardner Swift Lamson . , 


. Boston. 


Miss Kate G. Lamson . . , . 


. Boston. 



Mrs. Nellie Davis Patch. 
Miss Florence Davis. 
Mr. Herbert Davis. 
Master Walter Patch. 
Mrs. Addie Blodgett Allen. 
Miss Eva Channing. 

Mrs. Elvira R. Gould, a guest. 



RECORDS OF TEE FIRST CLASS 147 

ORIGINAL POEM BY L. E. HABEIS. 

How pleasantly within those walla 

We lived — a group of merry girls ! 

How potent is the spell that falls 

As from old fires the smoke new curls ! 

As there we laughed and strove and thought, 

The earnest men who led our time 

Oft graced our halLs and brightly taught 

In friendly converse truths suLlime. 

The saj:re of Concord sometimes came 

And made our youthful minds aspire ; 

Brave Horace, with his soul aflame, 

Enkindled ours with sacred fire. 

His wit was keen as his of R/'jme, 

His eye as clear to read his times ; 

He wrought to make his land a home 

For virtue, knowledge, love sublime. 

And he, the Bayard of our day, 

As poet called him, in whose face 

We read romance and courage gay. 

And knightly service to his race. 

The saintly Follen, sweet and strong, 

His kindly critic word bestowed, 

Alert to right e'en schoolgirls' wrong, 

Pure leader on the upward road. 

And that was deemed a joyful day. 

When came as guest to grace our board, 

The earnest, gentle, genial May, 

The saint by young and old adored. 

And he whose polished speech allured 

The lovers of the silver tongue, 

His service gave, and thus assured 

A willing ear to cause unsung. 

Rantoul of Essex, Stetson, Sparks, 

Putnam of pulpit fame so rare. 

And many bearing honored marks 

From life's great battlefields were there. 

The guide who led our youthful feet 

Along the steep and rugged way, 



148 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

Amid the burden and the heat 
Gave strength and purpose to our day. 
" Live to the Truth *' — his motto high 
Was no vain badge to grace our walls. 
We deemed him strong to dare and die 
For truths he taught within those halls. 
Of kindred aims with those rare men 
Whose high discourses charmed our ear, 
As from the past they rise again 
He stands beside them as their peer. 
And she, whose sweet and steadfast soul 
Was linked with his in each high aim, 
Who swayed our hearts by love's control, 
Is now a dear and honored name. 
With gentle mien and eyes of light,i 
With accents low but sweet and clear, 
She moved, a presence pure and bright. 
With words of wisdom and good cheer. 
The love that cheered him on his way. 
And shared his weight of care and thought, 
Undimmed into this later day 
To human need its wealth has brought. 
That was the bright awakening hour, 
When strains heroic filled the air ; 
A grand, resistless cleansing power 
Was rousing men to do and dare. 
To some old truths men waked anew, 
The Nazarene taught long ago. 
The human then diviner grew. 
And love for man found richer flow. 
A wave swept o'er the inner life 
Of souls of truest fibre wrought, 
And stirred amid the worldly strife, 
To finer issues, sweeter thought. 
A wave, too, swept o'er selfish creeds. 
And cleansed from Superstition's power, 
And left along its path the seeds 
Of purer faith's consummate flower. 
The voices since familiar grown. 
The prophet voices of our day, 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 149 

Rang out a fresh and youthful tone, 

Prophetic of their grander lay. 

Their " words half battles " later grew, 

As giant wrong its crest high reared. 

And wrought for Freedom conquests new, 

Averting woes the timid feared. 

The spirit of this newer time 

On us descended ; ardent youth 

Is prone to follow and obey 

The voice of pure, unselfish truth. 

These voices reached our calm retreat 

Within the old heroic town, 

And mingled with the brave drum-beat 

Our later voices could not drown. 

We read upon the engraven stone 

The story tyrants trembling hear ; 

The soil so sweet and sacred grown 

Reechoed Freedom's latest word. 

Though not all loyal have we proved 

To fair ideals that charmed our youth. 

The visions that our hearts then moved 

Have helped our " living to the truth." 

Those fair ideals so cherished then. 

Though never reached, still lure us on ; 

'Mid sternest Real, they shine again. 

Though " Youth's sweet purple light " is gone. 

The web of friendship woven there 

Has borne the test of changing years ; 

Its texture firm, its colors fair. 

Through all their conflicts, toils, and tears. 

Our laugh is not so light and gay 
As when we parted years ago. 
Nor yet so glad as on that day. 
When last we met, our spirits flow. 
Sequels of pain and change and loss 
Are added to our last review. 
New calls to bear the heavy cross 
Have tested love and faith anew. 
Great grief is born of greater love, 



150 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

And love remains, and richer grows 
Through loss and sorrow ; for above 
Our earthly mists it soars and glows, 
And burns away all selfish dross, 
And dries the fount of bitter tears, 
Finds heavenly gain in earthly loss. 
And triumphs o'er all faithless fears. 

" The best bides still, whate'er betide," 
God's angels come in guise we know, 
And in our hearts and homes abide, 

" Safe folded " from all earthly woe. 
As memory comes with holy calm 
When pain has spent its fiery force, 
The wounded hearts shall drink the balm 
Distilled from Love's divinest source. 
Nor age nor care nor mortal grief 
Shall furrow brows we knew so fair ; 
Youth's raptured dreams, so sweet and brief, 
No harsh awakening hour shall bear. 
Each heart that beats a welcome here 
Knows deeper draughts of joy and pain. 
Knows larger hope, more anxious fear. 
Knows heavier loss and sweeter gain, 
Than when, in breezy schoolgirl hour, 
It rose and fell with changing mood. 
Now dewy fresh as new-waked flower. 
Now drooping 'neath dark Fancy's brood. 
The march through weary toil and strife 
Like that the Grecian hero knew 
Must bring the rapturous sparkling life 
Of God's full sea to greet our view. 
We 're nearing now the sunset's glow, 
Our eastern sky grows pale and dim, 
Our morning chimes sound faint and low, 
And near and sweet our vesper hymn. 
Now for a brief, reviving hour 
Our broken ranks again we fill. 
As swayed by memory's magic power 
Dear vanished forms are with us still. 
Hushed voices wake again to-day. 



EECOBDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 151 

Dear hands long folded clasp our own ; 

From eyes long closed, again the ray 

Of love shines forth as erst it shone, 

With grateful hearts we own the sway 

Of influence strong and deep and pure 

That helped to brighten all our way 

And shaped our friendships to endure. 

Among the golden threads that run 

Throughout the web the years have wrought, 

This friendship counts a shining one. 

Inwoven well with love and thought. 

Our trysting days are rarer now, 

But not less cordial than of old ; 

If Time has furrowed cheek and brow, 

It has not tarnished hearts of gold. 

If I could sing as poets do. 

How gratefully to you I 'd bring 

A song as sweet and fresh and new 

As tuneful birds in May-time sing. 

But please accept my faulty rhymes, 

Which strive to voice my loving thoughts. 

And nearer bring the dear old times 

When we together lived and wrought. 

The guiding hand we know divine. 

Whether it lead through smiles or tears, 

And having pledged to auld lang syne. 

We also pledge to coming years. 

Those years will lead through sober ways, 

Where later autumn's fading leaf 

Will usher in the wintry days, 

The sunlight growing pale and brief. 

But we will pledge them yet anew, 

And trust a peaceful inner light, 

As sweet as springtime's dawning new. 

May keep our souls from wintry blight. 

Hail and farewell are quickly said. 

And then our paths diverge once more, 

But when these trysting hours are sped, 

May Hope shine brighter than before. 

Hail and farewell are quickly said ; 



152 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

The fairest day has fleetest hours, 

As in old poet's line we 've read, 

How light Time's footfall on the flowers. 

LETTER FROM MRS. PEIRCE. 

Nantucket, June 26, 1884. 
My DEAR Friends, — In answer to your kind letter to 
attend your Class Meeting, I must simply say, I have done 
writing letters. Though my health is quite good consider- 
ing my age (this is my ninetieth birthday), I am very much 
troubled with a dizziness which renders it almost impossible 
to write, and my hand trembles so that I can only wish 
you a pleasant meeting and repeat Father Peirce's 

" Live to the Truth." 



IN MEMOEIAM: HAKRIET PEIRCE 

Since our last meeting, in 1884, our dear old faithful 
friend, Harriet Peiree, has passed on to join him who was 
our " Father Peirce." 

Her brief note in acknowledgment of an invitation to 
join us then, written on her ninetieth birthday, by its evi- 
dence of faiHng strength, prepared us for the change which 
came three months later. Her illness seemed to be only the 
breaking up of nature and increasing weakness and weari- 
ness, which, however, left her brain unclouded to the end. 

Though we have not seen her since our memorable Class 
meeting in Nantucket, 1871, yet we shall miss her kindly 
greeting, which she has always sent us, and no longer will 
it be our pleasant privilege " to write her all about these 
meetings." She has ever taken a deep interest in each 
member of the first Class, and in my last conversation with 
her said, " You struggled together and fought the battle 
for Normal Schools, and I feel personally grateful to each 
one of you girls." This feeling was reciprocated, and the 
ties which bound us have strengthened with advancing 
years. We appreciate what she was to us forty-five years 
ago far better to-day than we then did. 

Shall we ever forget her gentle, quiet manner, which 
seemed to have power to calm the most perturbed spirits ? 
Eminently were the words true of her : — 

" For in her smile there is a charm 
That touches all she sees with calm." 

We acknowledge gratefully the impression made upon 



154 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

our Kves by her patient persistence in work, her readiness 
to lend the helping hand, her unselfishness, her devotion to 
her husband's interest, and unceasing efforts to lighten his 
cares. Truly do we, her children of that first year of the 
Lexington Normal School, " rise up and call her blessed.'' 

In her later years, when her work for husband and school 
was finished, with the same sweet spirit she bore her lone- 
liness and devoted her time and strength to helping the 
unfortunate, until the infirmities of age overcame her. 

Not by accident, but rather with a never failing modesty, 
her trembling hands penned, as last words to us, not her 
name, but the motto sacred to us all, " Live to the Truth." 

We copy from the " Woman's Journal " a most apprecia- 
tive biography of Mrs. Peirce : — 

" The announcement of the death of Mrs. Harriet Peirce, 
of Nantucket, will sadden many hearts far and near, and 
the words, ' It is finished,' will come to them with a sort 
of surprise, for though her life has been of unusual length, 
her friends, all younger than herself, had somehow begun 
to feel secure that for years she was yet to be spared, and 
there are many who looked forward to their yearly visit to 
her in her island home as yearning pilgrims to a sort of 
Mecca. 

" Her life has been of such rare and noble worth that I 
am sure its lesson is most appropriate for the columns of 
the Journal. 

" Mrs. Peirce was born in Nantucket, June 26, 1794, 
married April, 1816, and died the 29th of September, 1884, 
at the age of ninety. Her father, William Coffin, was a 
prominent citizen of Nantucket ; her mother a woman of 
worth, and her early home a home of culture and refine- 
ment, which influenced her whole life. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 155 

*^ Among her ancestors were Tristram Coffin, first of that 
name in the country, the Huguenot Bunker pilgrims in 
the Mayflower, and Quakers of later date. It is not too 
much to say that in her were combined the best character- 
istics of both sects. 

" Mrs. Peirce was one of those rare spirits who never grow 
old. Faithful to every known duty, elastic in her tempera- 
ment, with a heart lifted above the petty interests that make 
up the whole of most ordinary lives, her mind attained a 
balance that preserved the natural forces in their normal 
condition, kept her responsive to new impressions, and ever 
impelled her to new activities. To the last, her chief intel- 
lectual delight was in botany, which she studied from a 
girl of sixteen, when, with a few others of her own age, she 
began to collect, observe, and record her conclusions. At 
eighty-four she helped to form and joined a new botanical 
class. I have before me a valuable contribution written by 
her at that time and read at the meeting ; and this sum- 
mer, at the age of ninety, rare specimens brought from 
Minnesota by loving hands were received and examined 
with great deHght. 

" She was among the first to cast her vote for school com- 
mittee in Nantucket after our legislature gave school suf- 
frage to women. 

" Mrs. Peirce was widest known in her connection with the 
first State Normal School in America, of which Rev. Cyrus 
Peirce, her husband, was principal. Much of its success was 
due to her hearty cooperation with Mr. Peirce, to her coun- 
sel and unpaid assistance while the school was struggling 
for existence. While the early Normals of Lexington and 
West Newton live, her name will be revered equally with 
that of ' Father Peirce.' 

" After the death of Mr. Peirce, in 1860, Mrs. Peirce re- 



156 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

turned to Nantucket, and has since been identified with its 
charities and its religious and temperance work. In her 
religion she was simple and childlike, and to her friends as 
to herself, her departure has not seemed a death, but an 
entrance to a higher Hfe. 

E. N. L. Walton." 

The following lines were read by Miss Harris at a meet- 
ing in Framingham in 1893, at which a portrait of Mrs. 
Peirce was presented by the Class of 1839 to the Normal 
School : — 

We thought our farewell word was said 

Four years ago, 
When here our proffered scroll was read 

At sunset's glow. 
A long, eventful day had passed, 

Of fifty years. 
Among the Ancients we were classed, 

Ripe for Fate's shears. 
But Atropos has spared a few 

With silvered hair 
And sobered mien, who here with you, 

This June day rare. 
Recall one ripe October day, 

Long years ago. 
When other maidens blithe and gay, 

Whom well we know, 
Had met to walk one common way, 

The way of Truth. 
Now that red-letter autumn day 

Looms fair as youth. 
We, remnant of that youthful band. 

Your call obey. 
And greet you from that Morning land 

So far away. 
Though seen through the long, fateful years, 

So bright it looms ; 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 157 

For us, though seen through misty tears, 

Afresh it blooms. 
In visions of that Morning land 

To-day so clear, 
Beside our merry youthful band. 

Grave forms appear. 
Within the ancient church we heard. 

That day we met, 
The silver voice and potent word 

Of stately Everett. 
Majestic men of noble mien. 

Pillars of state, 
Within our lowly walls were seen, — 

Men good as great. 
With pure ideals for their race 

And faith as pure. 
They built in that historic place 

Foundations sure. 
" They builded better than they knew," 

Those men of old. 
Whose courage high and purpose true 

Events controlled. 
These statelier halls wherein you meet 

Echo their fame. 
For through red conflict's sterner heat 

For you they came. 
" Where are the Fathers ? Forever 

Do the prophets live ? " 
Yes. From the world's heart dies never 

The life they give. 
Successors here have prayed and wrought 

With kindred zeal, 
But they that early battle fought 

To triumph's peal. 
When last we met, I did essay 

In feeble rhyme 
To bring to you that bright array. 

Those Bayards of our time. 
The valiant leader in the fight 

Stirred knightliest men 



158 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

To join in service for more light 

With tongue and pen. 
These names, writ large, we gladly meet 

In annals of to-day, 
Where worthy sons with steadfast feet 

Still keep the fathers' way. 
In Court and Council, holy fane, 

In Learning's halls, 
They served their state with heart and brain, 

As duty calls. 
When fortune's tides seemed ebbing low, 

Brave Horace Mann 
Would Heaven's highest seat bestow, 

The story ran. 
On him who to the rescue came 

In hour of stress. 
And prompt his friend of honored name 

Assured success. 
Among the bright and shining deeds 

By Quincys wrought, 
This quick response to Normal needs 

Rich fruitage brought ; 
And generous Dwight stood in the van 

Of helpers brave, 
Both heart and purse to inspire and plan 

He freely gave. 
I '11 waive the privilege of age 

Itself to repeat. 
Nor name again each knight and sage 

Who with us meet. 
Yes, with us meet ! And here to-day 

Two forms appear, 
Than all among that bright array 

More rev'rend and dear. 
For us they breathe their daily prayer, 

" Live to the Truth," 
And by their lives, so rich and fair, 

Inspired our youth. 
Their faces looked down from your walls 

Benignant, calm. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 159 

With those who in your later halls 

Have won the palm. 
And does our fancy cheat our sight, 

If on one face 
We see to-day a strange new light 

A finer grace ? 
Might not the pictured semblance 

Meet her saintly face, 
And yearn to haste an hour like this 

That gives it place ? 
The light within her lustrous eye 

No artist can portray, 
Till genius catch the charms that lie 

In this June day. 
But well our artist's hand has given 

The lineaments we know. 
And with true artist insight striven 

The spirit's charm to show. 
We thank her for the patient care 

Each hint has caught, 
That helped to make our picture wear 

The truth we sought. 
And now in your Valhalla here, 

This speaking face. 
Among your best the kin and peer, 

Finds fitting place. 
The ever womanly look down. 

To you so dear, 
Who wove for them the laurel crown 

With love sincere. 
Those ever womanly will greet 

Our lovely friend. 
As one whose spirit true and sweet 

With theirs must blend. 
A strain of sadness trembles through 

Our greetings here, 
As two who shared our last review, 

To us most dear. 
Have passed beyond our mortal sight ; 

But well we know 



160 FIRST NOBMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

That somewhere in the realms of light 

Sweet grace shall flow 
From lives so fair and gracious herOo 

As memory's holy hymn 
We chant, brave looks and words of cheer 

Come thronging in. 
They kept their faith in sorrow's night, 

In God's great love ; 
Through Grief's dark cloud discerned the light 

Still shine above. 
One graced your halls in later days 

As teacher, friend. 
And for her gracious gifts and ways 

Our thanks will blend. 
The other with an open mind 

And noble aim. 
Beneath home's roof-tree true and kind, 

Love's touch kept aflame. 
They sowed good seed in youthful mind 

With loving care, 
And characters enriched, refined, 

Show fruitage fair. 
Now, in our hearts, they live with those^ 

Our early dead, 
On whose dear faces light still glows 

From Love's torch shed. 
And other faces greet us here, 

The true, the kind, 
Who absent, yet are very near 

In heart and mind. 
**A wizard of the Merrimack,'* 

Old legends say, 
To wintry branch could summon back 

Spring's dewy spray. 
Could we but own his magic power, 

What tides should flow 
Of health and strength richly to dower 

The love we know. 
A tragic poet of old Greece 

We 've somewhere read. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 161 

Poet, whose song may never cease 

Where hearts have bled, 
Came forward to the judge's seat 

To bear his scroll, 
In friendly contest to compete ; 

But at the goal 
He met the youthful Sophocles 

And smiled on him. 
But with surprise he also sees 

His scroll, and judgment win. 
He who at Salamis and Marathon 

Had nobly fought, 
And in great poet's contests won, 

The meaning caught. 
No more he came with proffered scroll 

To Athens' judgment seat, 
But to Sicilian's lands his haughty soul 

Turned from defeat. 
We are not poet-classic Greek, 

But Yankee rhymer, 
But none, I think, will vainly seek 

This moral for " old timer.'* 
Newcomers may well take the stage 

And we retire. 
One seeks not in the heart of age 

Poetic fire. 
Of one we know who yet can sing, 

At fourscore years. 
Such songs as to the heart can bring 

Youth's smiles and tears ; 
But he we know was poet born, 

And if the last 
Among his peers, no minstrel lorn 

Singing a doleful past. 
And he who sang the martial songs 

In manhood's prime. 
That burned to right a people's wrongs 

And haste the time 
Of God's pure kingdom here below, 

In age could sing 



162 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

Such songs as in sweet Maytime flow 

From birds of spring. 
But few with poet's sacred gift 

So richly blest. 
There comes not the discordant rift 

That hints of rest. 
Lest we be like that Mademoiselle 

Of the French stage 
To whom was flung the Immortelle 

To remind of age, 
We '11 bring no more our ancient rhymes, 

But leave to you. 
Our sisters of the newer times, 

The next review. 
You tiU a broader, richer field 

Than ours of old : 
New truths fair Science has revealed, 

New wonders told ; 
But aim and spirit are not new, 

Or highest truth. 
And best ideals that you pursue 

Allured our youth. 
To those who labor and aspire 

In the new day. 
Between achievement and desire, 

The same long way. 
The stately ship that lately came 

To greet our shore. 
Worthy the English hero's fame 

Whose name she bore. 
No higher mission can unfold 

To this new day. 
Than those quaint caravels of old 

That near her lay. 
But caravels have had their day. 

And we would hail 
The nobler craft, with pennons gay, 

That breasts the gale, 
Remembering the Normal Hall 

Of our school day. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 163 

With its equipments few and small, 

That led the way 
Across that vext and billowy main 

New things must dare, 
Before proportions they attain 

Generous and fair. 
We fain with you would pseans sing 

To the new day, 
And wreaths to crown its heroes bring 

Of choicest bay, 
And now, farewell ! Eve's sober gray 

For us is nigh. 
When sunset's last receiving ray 

Must fade and die. 
But evening has its gladsome hours, 

Its tender strain. 
And faith discerns our waning powers 

New life attain. 



TWENTY-SECOND MEETING 

The Twenty-second Meeting of the Class took place at 
the home of Mrs. Morton, Hahfax, Mass., on June 17, 1885, 
ten members being present. 

NAMES OF THOSE PEESENT. 

Miss Hannah M. Damon Boston. 

Mrs. Almira Johnson Boston. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton Halifax. 

Miss Louisa E. Harris Portland. 

Miss Adeline M. Ireson Cambridge. 

Mrs. Sarah E. Richardson Somerville. 

Mrs. Mary S. Lamson Boston. 

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Thompson . . Woburn. 

Mrs. Lydia A. Adams Fall River. 

Mrs. Sarah W. Drummond New York. 

Four children of members were present : — 

Mrs. Nellie Patch Roxbury. 

Mr. Herbert Davis Jacksonville, 111. 

Mrs. Lucy W. Packard Halifax. 

Mr. Thomas D. Morton Halifax. 

Two grandchildren were present : — 

Helen Morton Packard Halifax. 

Edith Davis Packard Halifax. 

Mrs. Winslow, a guest Halifax. 

It was a comfortably cool morning when we assembled 
at the depot in Boston, and took the train to South Han- 
son. There a barge was in readiness to convey us to Mrs. 
Morton's house, four and a half miles distant. Upon arriv- 



RECORDS OF TEE FIRST CLASS 165 

iDg there we were cordially greeted by our friend and her 
children. After assembling in the parlor, almost the first 
words of our hostess were, " I have been preparing for 
this for a year." Thereupon she took from a writing-desk 
some old letters written over forty years ago, which she 
read to us. These and general conversation occupied the 
time till noon. About one o'clock Mrs. NeUie Patch and 
Herbert Davis, children of our classmate, Mrs. Mary Davis, 
arrived from Kingston, where they were visiting their 
bereaved brother-in-law, and dined with us. At the din- 
ner-table Mrs. Morton read a story written by one of our 
class at school. After dinner, Mr. Thompson having en- 
gaged the barge, we all went to ride, and called to see 
Mrs. Drew, Mrs. Morton's mother, who was one hundred 
years old on the first day of last March. On our return we 
walked through a beautiful pine grove, planted by Dr. Mor- 
ton thirty-six years ago, and for which he received the 
county prize. 

After tea we again assembled in the parlor, when Mrs. 
Lamson read a beautiful tribute to Mrs. Peirce. Then 
followed the reading of the record of the last meeting, 
some newspaper notices of Mrs. Peirce's death, and a poem 
by Miss Harris. The remainder of the evening was occu- 
pied with interesting reminiscences of the early days of the 
school. Miss Damon giving a graphic account of her exami- 
nation, with two others, by Horace Mann, Jared Sparks, 
Robert Rantoul, and Father Peirce. 

The next morning, after breakfast, the barge came to 
take us to the depot, and thus ended our delightful visit to 
a charming old home, where the beautiful spirit of its mis- 
tress seemed to draw us all more closely together. 



166 FIMST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

POEM BY MISS LOUISA E. HARRIS. 

We read on history's storied page 

Of loyal subjects to their king, 

Who leave their land, and spurn the stage 

Where rebels " Yankee Doodle " sing. 

They sail with Howe to seek that land, 
Still holding to the right divine 
Of recreant kings, whose sceptred hand 
Could strike at Freedom's holy shrine. 

They go to Halifax, we 're told, 
And leal to the old regime. 
Garner their flocks in that new fold, 
Unvexed by patriot's sanguine dream. 

The name they bear is stanch and true, 

And loyalists we claim to be, 

Who, with our Halifax in view, 

This morning launched old friends to see. 

Unlike the elders, we have left 
No land divided, wounded, sore. 
Nor come as exiles sad, bereft. 
To seek a strange and alien door. 

We find our Halifax to-day 
A dear, familiar, friendly place. 
Where loyal hearts may have free play 
And yet no ancient ties efface. 

We find a hostess whom we knew 
When life was fresh and hearts were gay. 
And dear old comrades, tried and true. 
Who greet with us this fair June day. 

When twoscore years or more ago 
We laughed and talked with careless glee, 
Then parted, busier ways to know. 
And sail upon life's deeper sea. 



BECOBDS OF TEE FIRST CLASS 167 

We scarcely hoped this tryst to keep 
When locks were gray and eyes grown dim, 
To feel again the pulses leap 
As memory chants her holy hymn. 

Amid the season's flush and prime, 
As we recall life's radiant spring, 
And strive in vain our thoughts to rhyme 
And voice the song we fain would sing, 

A strain of sadness trembles through. 
And other voices thrill the ear, 
And through the misty years we view 
A larger band than greets us here. 

Clear eyes now dim, words kind and bright, 
Come back and mingle with our cheer, 
And seen through memory's softened light, 
How fair and strong our lost appear ! 

Our latest lost, our elder friend, 
Who lured and led the upward way 
No more her gracious word doth send 
To grace our messages to-day. 

Within the " bright and silent land," 
Beside the waters still and sweet, 
^Mid pastures green, by zephyrs fanned. 
Two dear and yearning souls now meet. 

To us they gave their love and truth, 
And are they not our guests to-day ? 
As real as when in that far youth 
" They lured to heaven and led the way ? " 

We see the light their faces wear 
As round this hearthstone here we greet ; 
And " if in heaven there yet is care " 
For those on earth, they with us meet. 



168 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

And all their children gathered round, 
As when of old our band complete, 
Give welcome audience to the sound 
Of counsels gracious, wise, and sweet. 

The weekly newspaper makes the following comment on 
this celebration : — 

" Mrs. Lydia H. Morton, of Halifax, Mass., widow of the 
late Dr. Cyrus Morton, celebrated, June 17th, 1885, at her 
home, by inviting and entertaining there, with abounding 
hospitahty, till the following day, her old Normal school- 
mates — the first graduates of the first Normal School in 
the country. Of the original twenty-five schoolmates, thir- 
teen are still living, and nine were able to join Mrs. Morton 
in Halifax the morning of the 17th. Five other guests 
were present — Mr. Leonard Thompson, of Woburn (hus- 
band of one of the schoolmates), Prof. Herbert Davis and 
Mrs. Patch (son and daughter of another schoolmate), Mrs. 
Winslow and Mrs. Packard, sister and daughter of Mrs. 
Morton, — the whole company, including the hostess and 
her son, Mr. Thomas D. Morton, who resides with his 
mother, numbering sixteen. The literary exercises of the 
occasion were an appreciative tribute from Mrs. Mary S. 
Lamson, of Boston, to the memory of Mrs. Harriet Peirce, 
of Nantucket, — who was a gratuitous and efficient co- 
worker with her husband. Rev. Cyrus Peirce, in the first 
Normal School during its infancy, and dearly beloved by 
its earliest pupils, — and a graceful poem from Miss Louisa 
E. Harris, of Portland, Maine. In the afternoon, Mrs. 
Morton took her guests to call on her mother, Mrs. Sarah 
Drew, of Halifax, a venerable woman now in her one hun- 
dred and first year. Mrs. Drew occupies, with a son and 
his family, the house in which she was born, and in which 
her father was born, and of which her grandfather was the 
builder." 



SEMI-CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION 

A Semi-Centennial Celebration of the Framingham 
(originally Lexington) Normal School was held at Framing- 
hanij July 2, 1889. Eight members of the surviving eleven 
of the Class of 1839 attended, namely : — 

Hannah M. Damon. 
Maria L. Smith (Mrs. Thompson). 
Lydia A. Stow (Mrs. Adams). 
Almira Locke (Mrs. Johnson). 
Mary A. E. Davis (Mrs. Davis). 
Eebecca M. Pennell (Mrs. Dean). 
Louisa E. Harris. 
Adeline M. Ireson. 

The " Semi-Centennials " had a very happy time at Fra- 
mingham, six of them remaining over night and attending 
the evening reception. This Class was invited to contribute 
to the Literary Exercises of the occasion, and Misses Damon 
and Harris did so. Their contributions were read at the 
evening reception. 

A GREETING FROM THE SEMI-CENTENNIAL CLASS. 

BY MISS DAMON. 

Forth from the dim and shadowy past, 
" Weird sisters " wan, we come to view, 

In this brave light, the structure vast 
Which from one temple grew ; 

For we were Vestals of that fane — 
Alack ! we come, a feeble few ; 

We were a score and twain. 



170 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

We bowed before that altar lone, 

And kept our little lamps ablaze ; 
On this high noon, we come to croon 

Our ditty of those days. 

Our Priest and Priestess wise, revered, 

A wedded pair with virtues rare, 
Forever to our hearts endeared. 

They taught us there the way, 
Through toil and pain, through cloud and rain, 

To this consummate day. 

We come to bring our glad " All hail ! " 

To Priestess and to Vestals here, 
To all who to this altar's pale 

Are come from far and near. 

" All hail ! " Anon, adieu ! adieu ! 
We go to come no more to you. 
Our sister Vestals gone before, 

Our Priest and Priestess kind, 
They call us, we shall soon cross o'er 
Unto their veiled and sacred shore, 

Our hallowed dead to find. 

The poem contributed by Miss Harris to the Exercises of 
the Semi-Centennial was mainly the same as that written 
for our Class meeting in 1884, and may be found in this 
book under that date. Only the new lines follow here : — 

And as we now in sober gladness, 

Salute this younger, gayer throng. 
Remembering that tones of sadness 

Make discord with their matin song, 

We fain would ask for them the boon 
We cherish from our Normal days, 
Friendships as true beyond life's noon 
As in its earlier morning rays. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 171 

We find not here our early shrine, 

But in the old heroic town, 
Where firmly planted was the vine 

Whose purple grapes your borders crown. 

We helped the planting of that vine, 

Grown vigorous on this golden day, 
And drink with you the generous wine 

Pressed from its vintage while we may. 

We do not come with golden spurs 

To greet this bright, rejoicing throng ; 
None deems the victor's laurel hers. 

Or dares essay the victor's song. 

We see a host beyond your ken. 

And voices hushed before your time 
Come to our ears from noble men 

Whose fame was in its glorious prime. 

Great hearts, with anxious, fond desire, 
Watched well the germ they planted here, 

And stirred us nobly to aspire. 

And helped to bring this golden year. 

Names written large upon the roll 

Of those who served with holy zeal 
The State we loved, and whose control 

Helped on our country's truest weal, 

To us were pleasant household names, 

Recalling men whose presence brought 
Something beside their stately fames. 

Beyond their stern majestic thought. 



IN MEMOKIAM 

The meetings of our Class have been less frequent these 
later years than we had thought they would ever be, while 
even a feeble few were left to hold an informal meeting. 
For many years the same famihar faces were seen at our 
gatherings, or cheerful friendly greetings came in the old, 
familiar hand, telling us why the writers themselves could 
not be where loving thoughts would bear them. We had 
missed — sadly missed — many of our early band, whom 
we recalled with loving affection, and we were, perhaps, 
nearer to each other for our common love to those so near 
in the earth-life now hallowed in our memories. But Death 
had not visited our ranks in very recent years, and we had 
come to this meeting with a cheerful confidence that we 
were to travel together a much longer way. 

We were all painfully surprised when the death of Mrs. 
Sarah E. Locke Richardson was announced to us. She had 
been one of our happy number at Halifax, who met in 
Mrs. Morton's home, June 17, 1885, and some of us re- 
marked upon her fresh and youthful look, thinking her in 
excellent health. Not one of our company entered more 
heartily into the pleasures of that bright day. Her death 
occurred at Wilmington, Mass., January 6, 1886, after a 
few days of severe illness. As we knew her in the school- 
room, — faithful, steadfast, quiet in manner, studious and 
thoughtful, — so we have known her since, the good, de- 
voted wife, the mother of sturdy, manly boys, whose minds 
she directed and trained to profit by the advanced teach- 
ings they afterward received. In their successes they may 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 173 

well be grateful for what she gave them in character and 
guidance, and we may well remember her as one who helped 
to make our meetings true and genuine reminders of what 
was worthy in our Normal teachings. 

Mrs. Lydia H. Morton died at her home in Halifax, Mass., 
May 15, 1887. As she had been in feeble health for two 
or three years, the news of her death was not so startling 
as that of Mrs. Richardson's. At our gathering in her 
home June 17, 1885, none could have welcomed us with 
more cheer and brightness. We had reason to know that 
she herself thought her time here very brief. But no 
shadow from the "dark angel's wing" disturbed the light 
of her home or her spirit that day. The quiet rural town, 
arrayed in such a wealth of green and gold on that fair 
day, the fragrant pine grove where we sauntered in her 
company, her face reflecting the joy she felt to have us, 
one and all, in her home together, her musical laugh at 
some reminiscence of our early Lexington days — shall we 
ever forget that rare June day in Halifax? When she 
came to school we looked on her as one of larger experience, 
for she had come from the Institution for the Blind in 
South Boston, standing well with Dr. Howe as a teacher. 
She at once found a warm place in the hearts of those 
younger, and became one of the best influences in our Nor- 
mal Hall. She sang to us in the twiHght hours in a voice 
so sweet and sympathetic that we looked forward to her 
song as among the pleasant recreations of the day. When 
she married Dr. Morton, she returned to her native town, 
and who can measure the influence of such a woman, as 
the good physician's wife, the loving mother, the large- 
hearted member of an intelligent rural community, with 
a listening ear to the cry of sorrow and glee or the note 
of joy? Her death occurring on the same day with that of 



174 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

her beloved grandchild, Helen Packard, a rare girl of fif- 
teen years, their funeral in the church of their love and 
worship was a most touching and impressive service, and 
all hearts yearned with sympathy for the bereaved mother 
and daughter. 

Again our ranks were broken on March 3, 1890, when 
Mrs. Mary E. Davis died at her home in Lexington. Her 
death seemed very sudden to us who had seen her but a 
short time before, apparently in her usual health. 

Her illness was of an acute nature, lasting about one 
week, a week of great suffering. Living much of her life 
in the old town where our friendships were born, her home 
had been for some of us the central point of interest in our 
visits there, and during her few years' sojourn in Andover, 
where she filled a large place and won warm friends, we 
found the same attractive home. Ketaining her fresh, 
youthful looks and alert, well-balanced mind, gentle and 
serene in manner, a stranger would not suspect the great 
sorrows that had come to her life during its later years. 
But through all her griefs the loving, refined home was 
never lost, though Death removed so many of its dear ones. 
She kept her faith and trust un dimmed through all her 
bereavements, and left to us, as to her family, the memory of 
a true, strong, and lovely woman, whose home was always a 
centre of gracious hospitahty. 

When some of our number attended the funeral of Mrs. 
Davis, they received the news of the death of Mrs. Rebecca 
M. Pennell Dean, which took place at her sister's home in 
New York, March 5, 1890, two days after that of Mrs. 
Davis. 

At our Fiftieth Anniversary, at Framingham, Mrs. Dean 
was one of the most honored guests of the occasion, having 
been a teacher in the school since our Lexington school 



BECOBDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 175 

days. She seemed to us a gracious hostess, entering so 
warmly into all the day's proceedings, and I remember 
none more happily associated with the occasion. When we 
parted from her, she planned meetings with us during the 
weeks she was to remain in New England, with the lively, 
affectionate interest she had always shown. We had some 
fears about her health, though she did not complain. Her 
appointments were not kept, and we soon learned of her 
severe illness while on a visit to Walpole. She rallied and 
started for her New York home, resting for a time with 
friends in Providence, and after reaching New York was 
so much better as to give hope of recovery, but her trouble 
proved serious, and after weeks of great suffering she died 
at the home of her sister, Mrs. Marcia Hersey, with those 
dearest about her. She had filled a large and honored 
place in educational circles, teaching in colleges in Ohio 
and Missouri ; she was a welcome and gracious presence in 
the best social circles, a loving and most loyal friend to us, 
her Normal sisters, and in more than one home among her 
kindred is mourned and missed as those who make homes 
cheerful and delightful. After the death of her sister, 
Mrs. Eliza Pennell Blake, also one of our number, whom 
we recall as lovely and beloved, she adopted that sister's 
son, who, with his family, became her dear children. She 
made her home at St. Paul, Minn., after the death of her 
husband in the early years of her married Hfe. 

Mrs. Susan E. B. Channing, another member of our 
Class, died January 8, 1894. She had been ill for many 
months, suffering from disease of the heart, and we were 
somewhat prepared for the announcement of her death. 
Though Hving in the vicinity of Boston, we had perhaps 
seen less of her than of any other member whose home was 
in this region. 



176 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

After leaving the Normal School she attended Mr. Emer- 
son's private school in Boston, and later she was principal 
in high schools in New Bedford and Lowell, and made the 
brilliant successes we could have prophesied from her fine 
intellect and thorough scholarship. After her years of 
teaching she married Dr. WilHam F. Channing, and has 
led a varied, active, and most useful life during all her later 
years — interested in the noblest causes and working faith- 
fully for their success. She spent some time in Europe, 
giving her daughter the advantages of foreign travel and 
study, while she added to the wealth of her own resources. 
At the time of our Semi-Centennial at Framingham, she 
was about starting for Europe, and expressed regret that it 
so happened, and at our more recent meeting she was too ill 
to be present. She had made a reputation as a superior 
scholar in her native island, Nantucket, before she came to 
Lexington, and sustained it fully while there, and went out 
to her work equipped as few women were in those earlier 
days, and was among the first to attain an honored place in 
the higher walks of her profession, and give assurance of 
woman's power to scale the heights so long thought beyond 
her endeavor. She leaves one child, a daughter, of high 
aim and consecrated talent worthy of the mother so devoted 
to her welfare — and we, her mother's old classmates, must 
rejoice over all the success she may achieve, while we deeply 
sympathize with her irreparable loss. 



TWENTY-THIRD MEETING 

On October 3, 1895, an informal gathering was held at 
the home of our friend and classmate, Mrs. Almira Locke 
Johnson, to celebrate her eightieth birthday. There were 
present Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Johnson, their daughters, Mrs. 
Arabella Nichols and Miss Almira Johnson, Mr. and Mrs. 
Locke, Miss H. B. Kogers, of North BiUerica, Mr. and 
Mrs. Leonard Thompson, of Woburn, Mrs. Edwin Lamson, 
Boston, Miss Louisa E. Harris and Miss Adeline M. Ireson, 
classmates of Mrs. Johnson. After pleasant greetings and 
reminiscences of Normal days, Mrs. Johnson gave the fol- 
lowing address : — 

Most heartily I welcome you, my classmates, to this my 
home. Fifty-five years since first we met on hallowed ground. 
According to my recollection, I was the seventh scholar to 
enter the school ; then came another, and we eight were 
there some time without more. Often have I thought of 
the privilege we there had, — so few of us to have all the 
teacher's time. Upon this point I might enlarge, but you all 
know. To me, as to most of you. Father Peirce's methods, 
the whole school arrangements, were a great treat. That 
was the school in which to be benefited for one's own sake, 
were she never to teach. Much has not been improved 
upon and can never be improved. I refer to things like 
this : " Never lose a chance to make a good, moral im- 
pression ; rather let the lesson go." In relation to the 
matter of improvement, I wish to hear from the rest of the 
Class. 



178 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

I have been told that Framingham Normal School stands 
higher than any other in point of moral training. This, 
you know, is our school. Back of our teacher, high as he 
stood, was the dignified, refined woman, his wife, to whom 
we are indebted for the controlling sweetness of disposition 
which was ever present to influence, not only us, but hus- 
band and all who came within its range. And now, after 
these fifty-five years, what must we consider our duty? 
You will say, " Live to the Truth." 

A very elaborate and appetizing dinner was served, and 
the day proved one of rare enjoyment in the meeting of old 
friends. The home of Mr. and Mrs. Johnson at Tyngsboro 
is situated just at the most picturesque bend of the Merri- 
mack and surrounded with deHghtful scenery. With best 
wishes for many added years to the life of our friend and 
her husband, the party separated. 



SPECIAL CELEBRATIONS 

Mr. and Mrs. Leonard Thompson celebrated the fiftieth 
anniversary of their wedding day at their pretty home, 60 
Warren Street, Woburn, Wednesday, May 26, 1897. The 
function, which lasted from eight till ten o'clock, was wholly 
informal, and was marked by the modesty and unassuming 
manner which has characterized the Hves of this worthy 
and honored couple. 

About fifty guests attended. The changes of fifty years 
have spared a few of the witnesses of the marriage ceremony 
so fittingly remembered this week. 

In July, 1839, the first State Normal School in Massa- 
chusetts was established at Lexington. The first graduat- 
ing class was that of 1840. Mrs. Thompson, then Miss 
Smith, of Lincoln, was a member of this Class. Among 
her classmates were : Miss Adeline M. Ireson, of Cambridge, 
who afterwards taught in that city for fifty years, having 
as pupils the late Governor Russell and, later, his son ; Mrs. 
Mary S. Lamson, of Boston, prominent in the Young Wo- 
men's Christian Association work, and Miss Louisa Harris, 
of Dedham. These three ladies were among the guests on 
Wednesday evening. 

So closely is the life of the host, Mr. Thompson, inter- 
woven with that of this old town and present city, that 
a paragraph of personal data is not amiss. Mr. Thomp- 
son comes of an old and long-established and influential 
Woburn family, being in the eighth generation from the 
family founder, James Thompson, one of the original set- 
tlers of Woburn, and one of the thirty-two signers of the 



180 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

noted Town Orders in 1640. James Thompson was a mem- 
ber of the first board of selectmen, serving the town in that 
capacity for twenty years. Mr. Leonard Thompson was 
born in Woburn, 1817, and for fifty years was engaged in 
business in this city, and has served on the school commit- 
tee, on the library directorate, as town treasurer, and for 
two years represented the town in the General Court. 

In spite of business cares and the demands of the various 
offices to which he has been called by the suffrages of his 
fellow-citizens, he has found time for historical research. 
He is a member of the New England Historic Genealogical 
Society ; a founder, one of the principle donors, a trustee 
and active member of the Rumford Historical Association, 
a member of the Society of Colonial Wars, and of the 
American Library Association. On the occasion of the 
two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the settlement of 
Woburn, 1892, he announced that he had donated $6000, 
to be known as the Burbeen Free Lecture Fund, and since 
that time the people of Woburn have enjoyed the oppor- 
tunity afforded by his thoughtful generosity. Again, on 
the evening of this golden wedding, he informed the trus- 
tees of the Burbeen Fund, who were present, that he had 
added a further gift of $5000. (Condensed from news- 
paper account.) 

A large number of friends gathered on the afternoon of 
June 22, 1897, at the home of our friend and classmate, 
Mrs. Mary S. Lamson, to celebrate her seventy-fifth birth- 
day. The house was adorned with flowers in great profu- 
sion, the gifts of many friends, — a bouquet of seventy-five 
Jacqueminot roses having been received from a former class- 
mate, Mrs. Drummond, of New York. Those present of 
the Class were Mrs. M. L. Thompson, Miss L. E. Harris, 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 181 

and Miss A. M. Ireson, while our former beloved classmate, 
Eliza A. Rogers, was represented by her two sisters, Mrs. 
Gould and Miss H. B. Rogers, of North Billerica. Prof. 
Gardner S. Lamson, of Ann Arbor University, Mich., Mrs. 
Helen Robinson, and Miss Kate G. Lamson, son and daugh- 
ters of Mrs. Lamson, received with her, and a social and 
artistic tea was served by them. Our classmate's seventy- 
five years have passed lightly upon her, and it was difficult 
to believe that she had filled out three quarters of a cen- 
tury. 

On September 16, 1897, was celebrated the golden wed- 
ding anniversary of our classmate Mrs. J. B. Johnson and 
her husband. Mrs. M. L. Thompson and Miss A. M. 
Ireson were the only classmates able to be present. Mrs. 
Drummond, of New York, sent a box of fifty yellow roses, 
and other flowers were received in great abundance. An 
original sonnet was sent by a classmate. Miss H. M. Damon, 
of Brookline. 

Mrs. Johnson spoke briefly as follows : — 

" Most cordially we greet our relatives, classmates, and 
schoolmates, and all others on this fiftieth anniversary of 
our marriage. These anniversaries, the twenty-fifth and 
the fiftieth, are as landmarks in our progress through life, 
and it is a source of gratitude that we have enjoyed so large 
a measure of health and retain our faculties to this age. 

" Accept our heartfelt thanks for the interest indicated 
by your presence here." 

Many were the loving wishes expressed that the couple, 
who have already passed the fourscore mark, might be 
spared to each other and to their friends. 



182 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

SONNET. 

To Mr. and Mrs. J. B. Johnson, on the occasion of their Golden 
Wedding Anniversary, September 16, 1897. 

Now is the golden Autumn of the year, 
And this the golden day that marks the date, 
Oh happy bride and groom ! when you, elate 
With golden hopes, and love which knew no fear, 
Just fifty years ago, in wedding gear. 
Plighted with vows your lives to consecrate 
Each to the other, in wedlock's holy state. 
Blest union ! closer drawn by offspring dear. 
Blest parents of leal daughters, loyal son ! 
Whose love has cheered you as the years have run, 
And brightens still with starlike, heavenly rays 
The calm and peaceful evenings of your days. 
God's peace be ever with you here below, 
His peace supernal when you Heavenward go. 



IN MEMOEIAM 

Our classmate, Mrs. Almira Locke Johnson, whose golden 
wedding has so recently been recorded, died at her house in 
Tyngsboro, December 2, 1897. 

To those of us who had seen her in Boston within a few 
weeks, the news came as a painful surprise, as she had 
seemed bright and well, keenly interested, as in the old 
days, in all that concerned her old Normal associates, show- 
ing her affection and loyalty in her efforts to meet those in 
the suburbs of the city. Her interest in " Father Peirce " 
and his teaching, and in all educational work and progress, 
seemed as lively and earnest at eighty-three as when she 
graduated from Lexington, with Father Peirce's word and 
benediction falling so deeply and so vitally into her respon- 
sive heart. Only two of her old classmates. Misses Ireson 
and Harris, were able to attend her funeral, which took 
place at Tyngsboro. A large company of relatives and 
friends assembled at the home whose deep sense of loss was 
most fittingly expressed by her pastor. Rev. Mr. Brown, 
who knew and appreciated so well the sterling character of 
our friend, her deep sense of duty, her unswerving integrity, 
her ever-ready kindness and Christian charity, her devotion 
to church and family, and the warmth of her zeal towards 
the needs of the larger world beyond her own narrower cir- 
cle, not usually kept so active at so advanced an age. We 
who had known her fidelity and kindness at school were 
grateful for such expression of our own feelings by one 
who had known her in later years. Her husband and three 
children, one son and two daughters, survive, — loving, loyal 



184 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

children of a loving, loyal mother ; and all her family were 
privileged to minister to her in her last illness. As we took 
our leave of the sorrowing, bereaved household, it was with 
a sober consciousness that another member of our loyal 
Class had joined the larger company beyond, and only 
seven of us were left to recall together the dear unbroken 
circle of our bright Lexington days. But I think we were 
grateful for the consciousness, felt more keenly at these 
services over our dead, that the years and new ties, and all 
the bewildering interests of this later day, have left our 
hearts warm towards each other. 

Our classmate. Miss Hannah M. Damon, died at Cam- 
bridge, November 19, 1901, at the age of seventy-eight. 

When the death of Miss Hannah M. Damon was an- 
nounced a few weeks ago, few, perhaps, remained among a 
host of admiring friends to whom she was a familiar and 
welcome presence through the years of youth and maturer 
womanhood. During years of invalidism her life has been 
so withdrawn from her once familiar world, that only kin- 
dred and privileged intimates have continued to enjoy, in 
these later days of weakness and suffering, the treasures of 
her bright, original mind, and the glow of her large, gen- 
erous heart. She was as zealous a lover of truth as one 
often meets. No deviation from it escaped her discerning 
eye. 

Even in small matters which a careless narrator would 
deem of no account, she would deplore any violation of the 
great laws she held so sacred, though she had no hard, bit- 
ter word for those whose moral sense was less exacting. 
Who that knew her does not recall her bright, beaming 
face as she entertained her friends with some spicy relation 
of interesting experiences in her intercourse with people 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 185 

or with books ? And when her bright thoughts or noble 
sentiments found expression in writing, how regretful we 
all felt that health and a keener self-appreciation had not 
favored that devotion to literary work which would have 
won deHght and approval from those whose verdict she 
would have valued. 

Miss Damon was daughter of Rev. David Damon, for 
several years the beloved minister of the Unitarian Church 
of West Cambridge, now ArHngton, a genial, reverend, 
scholarly man, who died suddenly, being attacked by ill- 
ness in a neighboring pulpit at the close of a funeral ser- 
vice over the remains of a friend. He was the kind of man 
to be a wise and helpful friend to such a daughter. 

She came as one of the first candidates of the first Nor- 
mal School in America, established in Lexington, Mass., in 
1839, the school for whose establishment Horace Mann 
labored and besought influential men in high places to 
" lend a hand " to what he deemed a vital work. Miss 
Damon came well equipped and earnest, and it was to such 
scholars the school owed its success in its early, anxious 
days. She taught in Worcester, where she won esteem and 
interest among its best people, taking part in its hterary 
and social life. She afterwards taught in Boston, till 
needed to minister to home and kindred, and was long con- 
secrated to these duties, where her loving loyalty found an 
ample field, till failing health compelled her to reHnquish 
former active duties, while suffering so seriously as to be 
confined to her room in later years, yet companionable and 
cheerful to those who found her there. And among those 
who were so privileged she will be mourned and missed, as 
are ever mourned and missed the kind and good who have 
enriched our lives with the gracious gift of wit and wis- 
dom and sweet good-will to all. We rejoiced that, with 



186 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

her warm heart so loyal to all her kindred whose lives she 
had helped to form and inspire, she knew their presence 
and companionship to her latest hours. Of all our loyal 
classmates gone before, or lingering a small and feeble 
remnant, none was more true to the highest ideals we 
brought from our old Lexington Alma Mater, 

L. E. Harris. 



A RECOKD OF THE FIRST CLASS 

BY MRS. MARY S. LAMSON 

Mrs. Lamson, having been asked by the Committee of 
Arrangements for the Biennial Meeting of the Alumnae of 
the Framingham Normal School, July 1, 1902, to prepare 
a brief sketch of work done by its first Class, presented the 
accompanying paper : — 

Alumna, Sisters : We welcome to-day, July 1, 1902, at 
this Biennial Meeting of our Alumnae, the new catalogue. 

We recognize the great amount of labor that the com- 
mittee in charge have given to it, and rejoice in the success 
which has crowned their efforts, making it an invaluable 
book of reference for present, past, and future years. Ac- 
cept our hearty thanks. Already its effect has been to 
make us desire, beside the good things which you have 
given us, that some plan may be devised by which we may 
know more of the work done by the Alumnae, believing it 
would greatly increase the interest of us all in the scholar 
as well as the school. 

Have we a record that would supplement this fine cata- 
logue and tell us what has been done by our Alumnae, so 
many of whom have become distinguished in various fields, 
but are not recognized as graduates of our Normal School? 

DO WE NOT NEED A ROLL OF FAME ? 

Partly by way of experiment, your executive committee 
has asked the first Class, 1839-1840, and also that of 



188 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

1892-1893, to prepare a brief sketch of what they have 
done in their respective sixty years and ten years since 
their graduation, especially in educational directions. 

Valuable histories of the origin of Normal Schools and 
their early struggles are in print, and we know all about 
those three frightened girls who braved the entrance exam- 
ination. But what if those legislators who took such care 
of the public treasury should appear before you to-day, and 
question you as to what those same girls had done to further 
the cause of education in this State, reiterating their ori- 
ginal queries — Have you taught? And, in this State? 
And for five years? Or have you been disloyal and, as 
we feared, married and left Massachusetts ? 

In order to satisfy these honest doubters of the need of 
Normal Schools, let us have our records ready for use. 

OPENING OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL, JULY 8, 1839. 

A few days, which included the Fourth of July, were 
spent in the parlor of the Lexington Academy, as it had 
been known, while repairs were in process of completion in 
the old schoolroom which was destined to be the abiding- 
place of this new class, the remainder of the house being 
devoted to boarders. 

A table, some chairs, a blackboard, a sofa, a terrestrial 
globe were the furnishings of the room set apart for the 
use of the seven girls and their teacher, Kev. Cyrus Peirce, 
of Nantucket. 

Simple, and lacking most of the comforts of life, its 
emptiness was yet to be filled with a power that should 
reach throughout our country. 

The lessons of those days taught us our new position and 
what it would mean to us that we were the first Class of 
the first Normal School of the country, — called as we were 



BECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 189 

to decide the question, "Shall there be such schools or 
not?" All must rest with this "Trial Class." "The 
foundations must be thoroughly laid and we must be con- 
tent to spend much time in reviews." 

There we were taught the motto so dear to all in this 
school, " Live to the Truth," with its explanation, and so 
were made ready for the schoolroom and its lessons, not 
one of us with a thought of failure, and ready to work 
harder than we had ever done before. 

Such was the power of that remarkable man whom we 
had yet to learn to love as our Father Peirce. 

COMMENCEMENT AT HARVARD. 

Soon after the routine of work was established came 
Commencement at Harvard, and this was made a memora- 
ble event to some of us. Mr. Peirce gave us an invitation 
to Cambridge to take what was then a delightful country 
drive, and attend the exercises — a never to be forgotten 
day by us girls of sixteen, who had scarcely been outside 
our schoolrooms. It must be remembered that even with 
the advanced ideas of Mr. Peirce, in this first year of the 
school, 1839, we hardly knew the word " exercise." Surely 
no provision was made for it. Saturday's half hoKday gave 
us only time for necessary repairs, and seldom did we take 
a walk beyond the " Clark " house of historic fame. 

But you must not think of us as belonging to the com- 
pany to whom " All work and no play " applies. A hap- 
pier, gayer hearted group of girls it were hard to find, for 
we had some brilliant wits among us. 

FALL TERM. 

A very pleasant addition of twelve to our number came 
with October, 1839, followed in January, 1840, by three 



190 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

more, making good the number of those who had fallen 
out by the way, and we were still twenty-five. These new- 
comers having been selected after the applications were 
more numerous, the result was a decided improvement in 
the scholarship of the Class. 

OPENING OF THE FIRST MODEL SCHOOL. 

The excitement of the year was the opening of the first 
Model School of the country in a pleasant room under the 
Normal schoolroom. Mr. Peirce chose Mary Swift as prin- 
cipal and Mary Stodder as assistant, to hold office a month, 
and to be followed by each member of the school in turn. 
There were thirty-three pupils from six to ten years of age, 
twenty-one boys and twelve girls. This school drew its 
pupils from the town of Lexington, and was discontinued 
only after the removal of the Normal School to Framing- 
ham. 

CLOSE OF THE FIRST YEAR OF THE NORMAL SCHOOL, 1840. 

The year closed with its record of success, and the next 
legislature, by a vote of 245 to 182, decided to continue 
Normal Schools, and — to pay for them — a proof of con- 
version. 

The graduates, with few exceptions, took positions as 
teachers, conscious of being closely watched by those who 
had the interests of education at heart and had sacrificed 
so much for the cause. Our ways parted at the door which 
we had entered a year before. We went out into widely 
divergent paths, leading literally from the Atlantic to the 
Pacific ; and in those days of difficult travel and few postal 
privileges we must have been lost to each other had it not 
been for an observance which, originating in our Class 
loyalty, came to influence many lives. 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 191 

THE ALUMNA GATHERING. 

Ten years passed — the school had been removed to 
West Newton, Lexington being outgrown. Its Alumnae 
had increased from twenty-five to several hundred. Kev. 
Mr. Stearns had become its principal, and now made great 
efforts to celebrate the tenth anniversary by a full gather- 
ing of the Alumnae. The first Class, 1839, had the largest 
representation of any present, and the largest meeting of 
the Class itseK since its graduation. 

We fully enjoyed the day, but a feeling crept over us 
that Newton was not Lexington, followed by a longing 
that we might have a yearly meeting to which all the Class 
might look forward and attend if possible, and that it be 
held first in Lexington. 

Gathering in a corner of the hall, the proposition was 
made and enthusiastically received, and we parted with 
high hopes for the future, after passing a vote that hus- 
bands and children be invited as guests and Father and 
Mrs. Peirce as members. 

BEGINNING OF CLASS MEETINGS. 

The morning of September 25, 1850, saw twenty-five of 
us on the road to Lexington, sixteen of whom were mem- 
bers of the first Class, and came bringing nine children 
with them. The record of the day adds, "with Father 
Peirce and dear Mrs. Peirce to welcome us " at the door 
of the Lexington Hotel. 

The first thing we found wanting was a Kecord Book, 
that the names of all present, old and young, might be 
remembered. We little thought of the value of such a 
record sixty years later, but we had learned at Lexington 
how to keep a journal, and, fortunately, began to practice 



192 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

it then, every line of this large book being valuable as his- 
toric material. 

Four little ones were brought to make the acquaintance 
of the new aunts, and to fill the places of those in the Class 
whose names had been starred in the ten years past, or who 
had made for themselves homes so distant that we could 
only send them a greeting to keep alive their love. 

And so began our Class meetings. A year passed and 
another happy day came, and many more followed in its 
train, continuing annually without a break until 1857. 

The story of these meetings must be briefly sketched and 
the many interesting pages in their records omitted for 
want of time. They were held in Lexington for seven suc- 
cessive years, when, on account of the inconvenience of 
reaching that town, they were removed to Boston. 

Nine years had passed, when, just as we were making 
plans for our tenth meeting, came a most unexpected sum- 
mons to attend the funeral of Mary H. Stodder (Loring). 

We had been too busy, and all of us too strong and well, 
to think that death might come, and only once in seventeen 
years had we parted with one of our family. How could 
we spare her f — this, the most highly gifted one and best 
beloved of us all ? 

Our tenth meeting was held in Boston, at the home of 
Mrs. Lamson, and was a memorial service. 

1860 was saddened by the death of Father Peirce. His 
pupils at once opened a subscription for a monument, a 
cross of Italian marble, to be placed over his grave at Nan- 
tucket. It was completed before the end of the year. 

July 1, 1864, was celebrated the quarterly centennial of 
the establishment of Normal Schools in America, and ours, 
the first Class, omitted its own meeting and joined in the 
festivities. 



BECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 193 

In 1871 the first Class received an invitation from Mrs. 
Peirce, who then resided in Nantucket, to hold their ap- 
proaching meeting on that island. She was too feeble in 
health to take the journey to Boston and wished to see us 
once more, and, also, that we should visit the grave of 
Father Peirce. This invitation was accepted, and the cele- 
bration of the thirty-first anniversary of our graduation, 
being the eighteenth Class meeting, with sixteen members 
and seven guests present, lasted two days, and was deeply 
enjoyed. 

As we stood by the grave of our honored teacher, there 
came to us memories of his enthusiastic, unselfish devotion 
to his high calling, which led him to consider nothing too 
trifling for his attention, if it helped the cause of education. 
That pathetic love for his pupils we can better appreciate 
at eighty than we could at sixteen. 

In illustration, will you pardon a personal narrative, 
which is told to show his loving self-denial ? One day, 
when the days were at the shortest and crowded full of 
work for teacher and pupil, he asked me to wait, as he had 
a proposition to make to me. Having been a pupil in his 
private school in Nantucket, before the opening of the 
Normal School, he continued to take interest in my studies, 
and now told me he regretted that I should, in this year in 
the Normal School, with only English studies, forget what 
I had previously done in Greek. " For Latin he had no 
fear," but, and he asked as if it were a favor to himself, 
would I be willing to prepare three lessons a week in Greek, 
and he would hear them recited in the evening when he 
came from his own home to ours, to see that all was safe 
for the night ! What a picture it would have made ! that 
corner of the schoolroom nearest the black stove, with one 
candle on his desk, and the old man and the young girl 



194 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

studying the Greek Testament ! The Old Master might 
truthfully have written beneath it " Devotion." 

The Nantucket journey suggested others, and in 1885 
we met in Halifax, Mass., with Mrs. Morton, and in 1895 
with Mrs. Johnson in Tyngsboro. This was our last formal 
meeting, the number of those able to attend having de- 
creased rapidly in the last few years. 

Maria Smith. Lydian Stow. 

Louisa Harris. Adehne Ireson. 

Sarah Wyman. Mary Swift. 

Six out of the first Class still Hve, but five of these are 
not equal to the fatigues of a day like this, and Mary Swift 
alone comes up to enjoy its pleasures, the first Class merging 
itself once more, as in the first ten years, in the great 
school. They send with me a most cordial greeting, and 
many thanks for all the loving kindness and courtesy they 
have ever received from you, with the hope that Normal 
Class meetings may be perpetuated through you. 

But before closing let us turn once more to our Record 
Book, which, despite its fading ink, tells the story of the 
years, and with its accompanying correspondence enables 
us to make an accurate report of the work of many of this 
Class since graduation, the purpose for which this paper 
was asked. We have reminded those who are still with 
us that it is false modesty if we withhold that which may 
bring honor to our Alma Mater, Not boastfully, but lov- 
ingly, do we bring in our sheaves, asking that they may be 
received in the same spirit. 

RECORDS. 

Hannah M. Damon, Class Secretary. Taught in Worces- 
ter and Boston for several years, when she became an in- 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 195 

valid and continued such until her death in 1901. She 
kept up her interest in the Class and did much literary 
work for it. 

Maria L. Smith, still living, July, 1902. Taught in 
district schools parts of four years and the whole of two 
years. Children and grandchildren bless her. She married 
after six years of teaching. 

Lydian Stow. Taught two sessions in Dedham, two 
years in Fall River ; married ; was elected a member of the 
school committee of that city and served four years, being 
the first woman to hold this office in that town. Her son 
has followed in his mother's steps, and has served nine 
years. 

Mary H. Stodder. No record can be found of her 
teaching. She left three sons, one of whom, a brilHant 
journalist, met an untimely death at the hands of savages 
on our Western plains. 

Almira Locke. Most loyal to Normal teachings and 
methods, which were her guide throughout her hfe. 

Mary A. E. Davis. Taught in Brattleboro, Yt., in 
South Reading, Newburyport, and East Boston, where she 
successfully managed a school of seventy-five boys. 

Sarah E. Sparrell. Married early, and spent most of 
her life in Illinois. 

Rebecca M. Pennell ; Eliza R. Pennell, nieces of 
Hon. Horace Mann. Both began their teaching in New 
Bedford on graduating, and remained there three years, 
until the marriage of EHza, who continued teaching in the 
Packer Institute for two years, until her death, which was 
the first in the Class for seventeen years. This is pro- 
nounced by authorities a most remarkable record. 

Rebecca Pennell taught continuously at Westfield Nor- 
mal School, at West Newton, in this school ; a professor 



196 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

in Antioch College until the death of her uncle, when she 
went to St. Louis, where she taught ten years, and thus 
rounded out her record of twenty-five years. 

Louisa E. Harris ; Sarah W. Wyman, schoolmates 
in Roxbury. Sarah W. Wyman taught six years in the 
pubhc schools of Roxbury and two years in a private family 
of four children. 

Louisa E. Harris commenced teaching on graduating, 
and continued four years in a school a Httle removed from 
the centre of Roxbury, and partaking of the character of 
a district school. Its previous discipline had not been in 
accord with Normal teaching. Next, she trained boys as a 
nucleus for a new grammar school ; next we find her head 
assistant in the Dearborn School for eight years ; then a 
time of rest in a Young Ladies' Private School ; next re- 
called to the Dearborn School, and later to East Boston, 
where she completed her thirty-three years of teaching. 
All this had been supplemented by literary work. She 
closes her record as follows : " But with no greater delight 
in any friends or happier memories than those connected 
with the Normal days, when we formed those sacred ties 
which are brightening our declining years with a glow of 
truest friendship." 

Susanna C. Woodman. Taught until she married, lived 
in Wisconsin. 

Susan E. Burdick. Taught in New Bedford and 
Lowell high schools for ten years. 

Lydia H. Drew. The first teacher of the blind and 
deaf Laura Bridgman. Dr. Howe sent her to Lexington 
to learn some of the Normal methods, with the hope that 
they would assist in her difficult task of teaching. 

Eliza A. Rogers. Taught, in the Institution for the 
Blind, Oliver Caswell and Laura Bridgman, both bhnd and 



RECORDS OF THE FIRST CLASS 197 

deaf, and for four years later received into her own family 
as a pupil a feeble-minded boy. 

Hannah P. Rogers. Taught in Billerica and Chelms- 
ford for several years in district schools. 

Mary Swift. Her first invitation to teach came, imme- 
diately on graduation, from Dr. S. G. Howe, who desired 
assistance in demonstrating to the world that a blind man 
can do something better than sit at the street corner and 
beg. When, a year later, Joseph Smith entered Harvard 
and Merchant Sturtevant Dartmouth, both blind, that work 
was done. This was followed by five years' teaching of 
Laura Bridgman at the Institution for the Blind, and after 
Dr. Howe's death she published the " Life and Education 
of Laura Bridgman." For nine years, under appointment 
by Governor Claflin, she served the State on the Board of 
Trustees of the Lancaster State Industrial School, and the 
town of Winchester, Mass., on the school committee. For 
thirty-six years she has been engaged in work for the Bos- 
ton Young Women's Christian Association. 

And now we bring this list to a close, waiting only to 
introduce to you our most distinguished member, 

Adeline M. Ireson. What think you of one who has 
taught from 1842 to 1892, fifty f uU years in the public 
schools of Cambridge ? Do you wonder that she is con- 
fined to her room, and can no longer write for us in the 
beautiful handwriting that adorns bur precious Record 
Book ? Patiently and cheerfully she is suffering, but in- 
terested in all we do here to-day. Imagine the satisfaction 
she has as she reads the daily papers, and among the names 
of the good and true finds those of governors, mayors, and 
aldermen, of whom she can say " he was once my pupil." 
She it was who kept constantly before her boys the idea 
of making preparation when young, that they might be 



198 FIRST NORMAL SCHOOL IN AMERICA 

ready when the city wanted them, and she is a graduate of 
our Normal School after Father Peirce's own heart. 

Legislators of 1839, we have laid before you a faithful 
report of one Class, the first, of the First Normal School in 
our country. You will notice its great variety of educa- 
tional work successfully done, and we wait your verdict. 
Do Normal Schools repay their cost ? 



NECROLOGY 

Sarah Hawkins * Unknown 

Louisa Rolph * 1843 

Eliza R. Pennell (Blake) October 5, 1857 

Mary H. Stodder (Loring) September 12, 1859 

Sarah E. Sparrell (Clisby) September 1, 1873 

Eliza A. Rogers June 25, 1876 

Susanna C. Woodman (Usher) January 7, 1880 

Abby M. Kimball (Chandler) May 19, 1880 

Hannah P. Rogers (Blodgett) July 28, 1880 

Sarah E. Locke (Richardson) January 6, 1886 

Lydia H. Drew (Morton) May 15, 1887 

Mary A. Davis (Davis) March 3, 1890 

Rebecca M. Pennell (Dean) March 5, 1890 

Susan E. Burdick (Channing) January 8, 1894 

Almira Locke (Johnson) December 2, 1897 

Hannah M. Damon November 19, 1901 

Margaret O'Connor Unknown 

Amanda M. Parks * Unknown 

* These were connected with the school for a short time only. 



APPENDIX 

FREDERICK W. LORING, 

SON OF MAKY HALL LORING. 

Among the names of the sons and daughters who were present at our 
Class meetings none appears so frequently as that of Fred. W. Loring. 
Not only in the days of his childhood, but in his after life, he retained 
his interest in his mother's friends and classmates. 

It was with the feeling of personal loss that we received the sad news 
of his untimely and cruel death. He was sent out in an expedition to 
Arizona under Lieutenant Wheeler, as correspondent for " Appleton's 
Journal " and the New York " Tribune." 

Having passed through the " Death Valley of California and Nevada," 
he was returning, happy to have escaped its terrors, when the stage was 
seized by Apaches, and, with five companions, he was massacred. 

The opinion held by the press of his literary work is given in extracts 
from contemporary papers below. His last work was the description of 
this valley, and was published in " Appleton's Journal " November 18, 
1871. 

A notice to the Associated Press under date of San Francisco, Novem- 
ber 20, 1871, reads as follows : " A coroner's jury at Wickenberg, Ari- 
zona, in the case of the recent massacre of stage passengers by Indians, 
found the following verdict : ' We, the undersigned, summoned as a 
jury to hold an inquest on the bodies of the following named persons, 
found murdered in a stage coach about six miles from the town of 
Wickenberg, on the La Paz Road, on the morning of the 5th of No- 
vember, 1871, from all the evidence obtained from the two surviving 
passengers, find that C. S. Adams, John Letz, Frederick W. Loring, 
Frederick W. Shoholm, W. G. Solomon, and P. M. Hammel, came to 
their death by gunshot wounds received from the hands of Indians, 
who have been trailed toward the Date Creek Reservation.' " 

" If the promise of early years be safe foundation for hopes of great- 
ness in maturity, American literature has lost one of its greatest in 



APPENDIX 201 

Frederick Wadsworth Loring. Charles Reade spoke of him as the 
young man of greatest promise in all America ; but before that some- 
what authoritative utterance the same had been said no few times by 
those who had marked the solid worth and already rapid rise of this 
young writer. His works stamped him as one of Nature's noblemen, 
worthy to have been born in free America, and his personal bearing 
and appearance gave confirmation of his birthright. He was of a dis- 
tinguished Massachusetts family — a nephew, by the way, of the pub- 
lisher Loring — and was born at Newton ville in 1849. He prepared 
for Harvard at Phillips Academy and was graduated in the college 
class of '70. 

" He wrote even while at Andover, but first made his mark in con- 
tributions to the " Harvard Advocate." We remember well conjectur- 
ing who might be the author of the many clever poems in that college 
journal, which went the rounds not only of the few college periodicals 
of that day, but, in more than one instance, of the press at large. Since 
leaving college he has been a contributor to many leading periodicals, — 
the "Atlantic," "Old and New," the "Independent," "Appleton's Jour- 
nal," " Every Saturday," and the Boston " Advertiser." It was while 
engaged as correspondent for " Appleton's " — as also for the " Tribune " 
— on Lieut. E. W. Wheeler's expedition in Arizona, that he finished 
the work that it was given him to do. His last piece of literary work, 
strangely enough, was a graphic description of the " Valley of Death," 
Arizona, published in " Appleton's " of November 18. Since their safe 
passage through this dreaded pass, nothing had been heard of the expe- 
dition till the news came of the massacre by the Apaches, in which it 
is but too certain Loring met his death. He died, like Winthrop, at 
the very outset of a bright career. He was much like Winthrop in 
his writings, having the same freshness and glow which made that la- 
mented soldier-author one of the most American of American writers. 
To his deep earnestness and faith there was added a playful humor 
which made lighter writing a successful recreation to him. But in 
other work he was nobly pathetic, as in his " Two College Friends," 
which is perhaps of all his writings the best index to him. It will be a 
sad while before we have an opportunity to welcome another author 
of such glorious promise as young Loring." 

■I 



202 APPENDIX 

A REMEMBRANCE OF FRED. W. LORING. 

BY WILLIAM ELLERY CHANNING. 

The Autumn moon lay round us as we passed 
O'er the old common, the familiar streets, 
Our talk of thy new story, modest, young ; 
The soft September airs, some falling leaf, 
Murmurs of music on the city's tide ; 
And thou, Loring ! boy of the Roman face, 
The sweeping locks, and that expression stern, 
Sweet in its early manhood. 

Much I prosed 
Of the deep sage of Weimar and his book, 
That strange and marvelous Wilhelm Meister. 
As thy thought was of thy partial life, 
Not yet unfolded to the perfectness 
Thy tastes enforced, child of a generous blood. 
And we saw Minnie hurrying home from school. 
And Nellie with her curls, rich as thy own, 
Yet clustering more, and more becoming thus. 
Laughing, we mocked at those cold city streets, 
And how one born and bred within those walls 
Might, like a pilgrim, go unwept, unknown. 
While strangers from all quarters of the earth 
Are gathered in at fabulous cost. 

I said : 
Loring, life is before thee. I must prose, 
But yet can remember some such thoughts 
As you express. Time hath a wallet on his back ; 
In this you yet shall gather alms. Still work. 
What if your story of these college lads 
Be not all you could wish it, and you still 
Must with laborious pen rewrite. 
And yet once more rewrite the painful void ? 
Think not too strait of facts ; build up your verse, 
Such as that pure and touching melody 
Of queenly love, or ballads from your heart. 
Light and impulsive as your variable moods ; 
For you know truly that you never quite 
Have yet loved any one for good and all. 



APPENDIX 203 

And pray, who were those beauties in your songs ? 
Julia 's too blonde, and Gertrude 's most too dark. 
We hastened to the studio where he dwelt, 
Half eager, brimmed with hope, and yet content 
To be forgotten. 

Much of him I dreamed. 
Alone of all our youth, or seeming thus, 
He sought a poet's fate, resolved to win 
A poet's fortune, cultivate that art, 
And seek it for itself, himself forgot. 
No richer life methought the city pulse 
Held to its beating veins, no prouder hope. 
Loved by his friends and garnered in their hearts. 
So fared he forth ! 

And there on those far plains, 
Those wasteful regions of untraveled wealth, 
Where golden rivers glide o'er golden sands, 
And far away the purple mountains soar. 
There in some vale, that dark and bloody vale. 
Thy burial vault, that Arizona vale, 
With all thy youth and promise, and soft heart, 
And generous nature, wishing good to all. 
Killed, murdered, trampled out, destroyed ! 
Loring, I should have wept thee hadst thou lived 
And never won the poet's crown ; and now, 
At this — this bitter parting, this recoil, 
I see once more the soft September day. 
Thy sweeping locks, and hear thy modest voice. 
And think, this was a world thou loved and sang, 
A world unkind for thee ; and blend my tears 
With those who loved thee, thou sweet poet-boy, 
And feel the Autumn sunshine touch thy form. 
So fleet and vigorous, we can see no more. 

IN MEMORY OF MARGARET O'CONNOR. 

(The name Margaret signifies a pearl.) 

Margaret, dear Margaret, precious pearl. 
Where art thou hidden from my longing eyes ? 
Does the earth still hold thee living, yet so changed 



204 APPENDIX 

In form and lineament through time's disguise 

That seeing I could not thee recognize, 

Or does the grave thy mortal form embrace 

While thy freed spirit through heaven's boundless space 

From star to star wings its immortal way, 

Born to the splendors of Eternal Day ? 

Though sixteen summers with their warmth and light 

Had dyed thy burden rich of ringlets bright 

With the rare auburn hue that artists love. 

Still in thy heart in form and mien a child, 

Shy as a fawn within its native wild. 

Yet loving, loyal as the gentle dove, 

And ever busy with thy book and brain, 

The only Margaret of our schoolgirl train. 

Thus I remember thee, dear, long-lost pearl. 

Ah ! if thou dwellest yet as I in clay. 

Soon must thy bonds be riven, " dust unto dust " be given. 

For we are old and soon shall " go the way 

Of all the living," whither thy flight has led. 

Follow on new-fledged pinions our dear dead 

Into the realms where life and love abound. 

Into the light where all the lost are found. 

There shall I find thee, Margaret, precious pearl. 

H. M. D. 



MISS IRESON'S FIFTY YEARS OF SERVICE. 

PREPAKED BY JOHN W. FREESE, MASTER OF THE WASHINGTON SCHOOL. 

On the occasion of the retirement of Miss Adeline M. Ireson from the 
profession of teaching, after an experience of fifty years of successful 
work, a public testimonial in honor of her long and faithful service was 
given in Sanders Theatre on the evening of July 1, 1892. 

The presentation exercises were opened by the master of the Washing- 
ton School, in a brief speech assuring Miss Ireson of the high esteem and 
kind regard of both teachers and pupils, and expressing on his own and 
their behalf the wish that, in her retirement, she might find a happy 
serenity commensurate with her long and faithful labors as a teacher. 

He then introduced Professor Albert Bushnell Hart, the committee in 
charge of the school, who in turn presented the superintendent of schools, 
Francis Cogswell, who spoke as follows : — 



APPENDIX 205 

" My acquaintance with Miss Ireson began, not fifty years ago, but 
nearly forty. I came to Cambridge in 1854, having been appointed 
master of the Putnam School. Before entering upon my work, at the 
request of a member of the school committee, I visited the Washington 
School, then under the charge of Mr. Daniel Mansfield. No reason was 
given for making this request, but after visiting the school I understood 
why it was made — the committeeman would show me in the most effec- 
tive way the quality of the work I was expected to do. At that time 
Miss Ireson was not a teacher in the Washington Grammar School, but 
taught a middle school in the same building. Her teaching, however, 
affected the standing of the grammar school not less than when, years 
later, the middle and grammar schools were united. 

" Of Miss Ireson's work during the past eighteen years I have per- 
sonal knowledge, and I wish to say to her in the presence of her friends 
and pupils, ' Well done, good and faithful teacher ! * 

" Miss Ireson, it must be a great satisfaction to you to see so many of 
your former pupils here to-night, and know of the high esteem in which 
you are held. Think how many have become a blessing to themselves 
and to others. Nor is this all. Remember that no one knows the full 
measure of his influence. In my own experience, the two teachers who 
exerted upon me the strongest influence for good never knew that I was 
anywise affected by them. Even now I find myself influenced in the 
selection of teachers by the memory of the sweet voice and gentle ways 
of one of them, a teacher of a primary school. The other was a pre- 
ceptor in a New England academy. Were I a painter, I could place on 
canvass his thoughtful face, for it has been as distinctly before me down 
through the years as when I looked upon it as his pupil ; and all my 
thoughts of him have made me feel that ' Life is real, life is earnest.' 

" Miss Ireson, as the years roll on — the endless years — this picture 
will grow brighter and brighter, and you will learn what it is so hard to 
realize here, that no faithful service is ever lost or fails of its reward." 

Governor Russell, at one time a pupil of Miss Ireson, had been 
expected to take an important part in the exercises, but as imperative 
engagements prevented his coming, Mrs. Ellen A. Goodwin, of the 
school committee, read two letters from him, as follows : — 

Professor A. B. Hart. 

My dear Sir, — I find, very much to my regret, that I shall not be 
able in all probability to be in Cambridge on the evening of July 1st, 



206 APPENDIX 

to attend the exercises of the Washington Grammar School, whose 
interests are very dear to me, especially because of my early associations 
with it. Please express my regret at being absent ; also express to my 
old friend and teacher. Miss Ireson, my congratulations on her fifty 
years of most useful and honorable work ; my thanks, as one of her 
pupils, for her influence and guidance, and my earnest hope that God 
may give her long life and prosperity. 

Very truly yours, 

William E. Russell. 

Dear Miss Ireson, — It is with the greatest possible regret that I 
find I cannot get to the exercises to-night. I should love dearly to be 
there and, in presenting to you the testimonial which you have so well 
earned, express my appreciation of your very faithful services, and my 
gratitude to you for your kindness and assistance to me in my boyhood 
days. I never shall forget the patience, the ability, and interest of my 
old teacher, nor shall I forget how much I owe to her for any success 
that has come to me in later life. With kind regards, I am sincerely, 

William E. Russell. 

Letters were also read from Mr. E. S. Dixwell, for many years head 
master of the Latin School, Boston, and from Mrs. Alice Freeman 
Palmer. 

The reading of letters occupied the place in the programme that had 
been assigned to the governor. Professor Hart, of the school commit- 
tee, then presented Miss Ireson with the valuable testimonial in behalf 
of her many friends. The following is a portion of Professor Hart's 
speech : — 

" That it has fallen to my lot to make this presentation is due to no 
desert, but to the unavoidable absence of others who would have been 
glad to enjoy that dignity. The governor of the Commonwealth, as 
he informs you in the letters that have just been read, had hoped to 
pay this tribute. The mayor of this city would have taken this place 
but for another imperative engagement ; and our venerable Dr. Pea- 
body would have been the worthy spokesman of the occasion had he 
not been on the point of leaving town. I am the spokesman of more 
than one hundred of Miss Ireson's friends and neighbors in Cambridge 
and elsewhere who have wished to express their appreciation of her 
lifelong work. A list of all the subscribers to the testimonial will in 
due time be sent her. It includes men and women, business men, arti- 



APPENDIX 207 

sans, and fellow-teachers, high officials of the city government, the presi- 
dent of the University, and the governor of the Commonwealth. It 
includes especially many old pupils who gratefully remember their study 
with Miss Iresou. 

" I offer you this tribute, Miss Ireson, because of the quiet, self-re- 
specting life which you have passed in this community, a lesson to your 
scholars and to us all. I offer it because of your patience during fifty 
years. Some of the little pupils in the audience think a day's school 
life a long time. What would they think of ten thousand days of 
school ? But ten thousand times has Miss Ireson gone through her 
daily duty. I offer this, Miss Ireson, because of the interest in your 
pupils to which the letters which have been read testify, and which is 
as active now as at any time during the fifty years. When, some 
months ago, you came to say that you had made up your mind to resign 
from the Cambridge schools, I replied that Cambridge had no desire to 
lose your services. 

" It gives me great pleasure to offer, in the name of your pupils and 
friends, this document, an annuity entitling you to the sum of $129 
yearly during the remainder of your life. The paper lies upon a silver 
salver bearing the following inscription : ' Presented to Adeline M. 
Ireson by her former pupils and other friends, in grateful recognition of 
her Fifty Years of faithful service in the Washington School, Cambridge, 
July 1st, 1892.' 

" The gift itself is the lesser part and the part which you will value 
the least, for with these tangible evidences goes the good-will of your 
many friends, and the respect of the community which for fifty years 
you have served so faithfully." 

In accepting the gift Miss Ireson said : — 

" Friends and former pupils, — I sincerely thank you for the beauti- 
ful and valuable gifts which you have bestowed upon me. They will 
make life easier for me in my retirement, and be a constant reminder to 
me of your generosity. Nor is it for their value alone that I prize them, 
but the names of the donors, the names appended to the circular, are of 
themselves a testimonial of which any one ought to be proud. I have 
never realized so fully before my unworthiness of the honor you have 
done me. The wise man says, ' Let not him that putteth on the harness 
boast as he that putteth it off.' But as one drops the harness who has 
any high standard of duty, and realizes the immense power for good in 
the opportunity of influencing so many young and plastic minds, he can 
but be very humble in view of the small results accomplished. True I 



208 APPENDIX 

have given the best of my life and strength to the work, but I have had 
a genuine love for it and thoroughly enjoyed it, and only wish that I 
were ten years younger that I might continue in it. I recall many of 
my pupils who have filled and are filling honorable positions in the world, 
and as I hear of them from time to time I wonder whether my influence 
has been any factor in their success. I well remember the fair-haired, 
full-browed boy, with his clear voice and prompt answers, and am proud 
to have had a small share in the education of one who has so admirably 
filled the highest offices in the city, the state, and I had almost said, in 
the land. But that will come later. (Applause.) 

" Allow me to thank our honored superintendent and committee for 
their consideration and their constant support, and especially for the 
interest and earnestness they have manifested in giving me this recogni- 
tion of my services. The recollection of it will go with me through life, 
and give others confidence to feel that their work is appreciated." 

Brief remarks by the Rev. Dr. McKenzie concluded these interesting 
exercises. 

"LIVE TO THE TRUTH." 

[A CONVENTION of the Graduates and Undergraduates of the West 
Newton (originally Lexington) Normal School was held at West New- 
ton, August 12, 1845. Father Peirce's motto, " Live to the Truth," 
wrought on a wristband of perforated cardboard, was the badge worn by 
all on the occasion. Some of the graduates were invited by Father 
Peirce to send contributions to the literary exercises of the occasion. 
The following poem he especially honored by reading it himself. For 
this reason and because his motto was the subject chosen by the con- 
tributor, it is given a place here.] 

Never hath man so lived. 
Partial obedience only hath he rendered 
To that " still small voice " which ever whispers 
To his striving soul — " live thou to the truth." 
Obedient to this heavenly inmate, man, 
From innocence and Eden, had arisen 
To virtue and immeasurable bliss. 
God's laws and mysteries had, one by one, 
Been opened to his vision, and his soul 
Had gathered wisdom almost infinite, 
For to the doer of the Almighty's will 



APPENDIX 209 

Is given the wondrous knowledge of his ways ; 

And hand in hand with wisdom had come power. 

To glorify this child and heir of God, 

To fill the measure of his happiness. 

Then had this earth, the garden given to man, 

That he might " dress and keep it," beguiling 

With sweet labor hours which else were weary, 

And the while holding delightful converse 

With his Maker's all-pervading spirit, 

Then had this earth, which bears upon its face 

The seal of man, the impress of his nature, 
" Blossomed as doth the rose " and gathered grace 

And beauty to its primal loveliness. 

With God, with Nature, with himself at peace, 

Man's lot as man had been a foretaste sweet 

Of that diviner bliss, his heritage 

When death, to him a messenger of love. 

Should gently loose his mortal bands of clay, 

And bid him soar in angel wings to heaven. 

No, man hath never lived a truthful life. 

Hence all the nameless, countless miseries 

That mar his being here, reflections all 

Of the dark falsities within his soul. 

That first law of his being, " Thou shalt love 

The Lord, thy only God, with all thy strength,'* 

Comes to a willful not a willing mind, 

And ever idol worship is the sin 

That alienates him from his Lord and heaven. 

Nor hath he made his Maker's claims alone 

Of none effect, for, ever " from the ground 

His brother's blood cries upward to God's throne " 

Of selfishness, neglect, and cruel wrong. 
" Am I my brother's keeper ? " is man's plea 

Ever when self-accusing conscience chides. 

In vain that plea, for conscience whispers still 

His sin and sorrow on thy soul must rest, 

His burdens, thou must with thy brother share. 

Well may life be to man a " vale of tears," 

And death a darker vale of shadows dim. 

Illumed with only gleams of a life beyond ; 



210 APPENDIX 

For never will heaven's kingdom come without 

Till it has come within, till innocent 

And trustful man has grown, childlike in soul, 

As those " whose angels ever do behold 

In heaven the Father's face," till he hath learned 

To be a doer of that Father's will. 

" Why stand we idle ? " Let us hasten on 
The dawn of that blest morning when the prayer 
Which " centuries ago " arose to heaven 
From lips which spake but truthfulness divine — 

" Father, thy kingdom come, thy will be done 
On earth as it is done in heaven above " — 
Oh ! let us hasten, if we may, the morn 
When this prayer shall be answered. Lives of truth 
Will bring this consummation in due time. 
And make men fit partakers of its bliss. 

H. M. Damon. 



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